Phase 5 - Pirate Fight!

[cityship]

They now know what they're up against: space pirates. Interdimensional kidnappers and ruthless scallywags, that hijack ships, and sell the ships themselves and their contents for profit.

Their spaceship is rammed through the hull of the bridge, they're outnumbered fifteen-to-one, and the pirates have some very shiny tech on their side. But even with Stacy suppressed, the crew has her on their side, as she's trying her best to hide them from view and not allow her internal defenses to be used against our stalwart Meatcrew.

Now, in the area outside the bridge, which is home to a wide open space surrounded by a network of hub tunnels and the like, the crew is going to make their stand against the pirates--and the success of this fight will decide the fate of the rest of the crew. It's not easy task, either, considering the powerful weaponry the pirates have at their disposal, and the physical strength, cyborg augments, and powers a number of them have. But they do have a plan.

Will Team GTFO succeed, reopen the ship, and be able to go back to help the others fight against whatever was released against them? (Is it already too late to help them all?) Or will they fail, will those Left Behind have to cross their fingers and hope for the best, will the crew be doomed to a horrible fate in the meat markets (both literal and figurative) of the of the pirate black markets known as the Chopping Blocks?

[ooc: As usual, old threads are still open. And subthreads will be left open so folks can tag them. For instance, even after the subthread with the pirates retreating goes up, the pirate FIGHTING can still be tagged. You can also tag multiple subthreads, since it's a big-ass brawl and you can do fun stuff like having your character flung across the fight.

OPEN FOR TAGGING]

Comments

The Ambush!

[cityship]

This is no head-on fight. This is an ambush. And one in the good guys' favor.

Re: The Ambush!

[hatngartersnake.livejournal.com]

Everyone was heavily armed and heading for the door to the bridge, shooting out the sensors as they approached, not even slowing down to pile up debris to take cover behind -- they had no intention of being pushed back this way. They looked very determined and very, very dangerous.

At least, that's what the pirates would see. Jeka's illusions were very, very detailed. The pirates wouldn't suspect a thing.

The Fight!

[cityship]

It's nothing short of a brawl, as Team GTFO fights the pirates, but it's an organized chaos, as everyone works together to take the pirates down, and they have the advantage of surprise and have already bowled them over with their initial attack. They also aren't expecting as many people as Team GTFO has.

There are cyborgs, beings with superstrength and invulnerability, shapeshifters, beings with multiple arms or powerful hind legs, some are brawlers, some are schooled in alien martial arts, or in the use of whips or bladed weapons. Some have powers, like ray beams fired from their mouths, or freezing powers or the ability to manipulate fire--and they all know how to use their abilities in nasty, vicious, deadly ways.

Their weapons are all nasty. Laser whips, electrified brass knuckles, powerful beam weapons, stun rods that cause agonizing pain when they make contact with living flesh, and so on.

Some of them are hulking, scaled and spiky lizard beings, others are normal humanoids, yet others are strange things, like amorphous blobs that try to suck people inside themselves to suffocate them. Most of the ones that can be scared, are, showing that this certainly isn't their first fight.

This isn't the first fight of many of Team Good, either, but the pirates want to make it their last.

[ooc: Start a fight subthread or tag into one! Work on your combat badinage! Describe what type of pirate mook or mooks your guys are fighting as you, make new and interesting npcs up. The mods will occasionally chime in with npc actions, to help out, but for the most part, it's up to all of you guys what the bad guys do in the fight. Just make sure in the end, that the bad guys lose!

Re: The Fight!

[restoresbalance.livejournal.com]

After that initial Force Push, Luke ignited his lightsaber, the snap-hiss of the green-white blade a familiar thing, and leaped forward. He went for a huge, many-armed thing, the claws like pincers and the eyes projected out on short stalks. It made a gurgling roar as he came at it, and scuttled sideways on crablike legs, free pinches clacking, those ones that were gripping an odd whip and a shiny stick with a wicked-looking emitter at the end.

Luke didn't want to know what that stick thing did, so he crouched and, holding his lightsaber up in guard, pulled his blaster into his hand with the Force and took a couple shots, trying to see if the thing's shiny skin was armored or not.

Re: The Fight!

[wolf-that-grins.livejournal.com]

There was a very big, very ugly humanoid figure with face of a pig in the middle of the pirate group. Wags noticed him, if only for the reason that he was too big not to be noticed, and, as the creature moved to attack one of Wag's crewmembers, the werewolf launched himself of the being, teeth gnashing in an attempt to rip into the giants hide.

Capturing the Kangaroos

[top-teen-38.livejournal.com]

Slobo made his way through the melee. He knew his plan. He searched out the ones who looked like the captain, and began sneak attacking and dragging them away as soon as he could. Hopefully, he had the help Sheeana said she would give him...

Re: The Fight!

[hatngartersnake.livejournal.com]

Jeka swooped around the edges of the crowd, high up to avoid the weapons. While she occasionally dipped down to wrap her tail around a pirate and fling him at his fellows or just into the walls, she focused most of her concentration on keeping the pirates off-balance -- making them see attackers that weren't there, disguising her crew members as other pirates, and so on and so forth.

Chief had told her to sow chaos and confusion amongst the pirates, and that was what she was going to do. It wouldn't even bother the rest of the crew, since she could control who saw the illusions.

The Dread Pirate... Bob?

[staturity]

It didn't take very long for Cassie to realize that staying alive without killing some of these guys wasn't going to be easy. This came to her mind after one of the spiky lizard things backhanded her and send her sprawling to the ground. Cassie rolled out of the way when it tried to slam a giant, spiked on her. As she got to her feet she saw that the giant spiked mace was actually the lizard thing's tail.

She had to wonder just what kind of evolutionary forces had been at work at this guy's home planet.

The tail swung towards her and she dodged again, stepping in close enough to punch the alien in the face. The alien knocked against another of the pirates, this one was more humanoid. He turned to look at Cassie.

"Hey, hot stuff, after this is over why don't you and I-"

The spiky lizard shrieked. "BOB!"

"I'd sure like to do some one on one fighting with her if you know what I m-OOOOF!"

Poor Bob, leaving himself open for a giant sized fist in the face. He just couldn't get a break (or a date) in any universe.

Re: The Fight!

[brainy-bot.livejournal.com]

Brainy looked like he might be in over his head, as in rushing to confront one of the less organic pirates, he suddenly found himself surrounded by three more. And while he was a lot larger and more dangerous in his battle mode, he could still be overpowered and taken down if things got out of hand. But surprisingly he didn't even attempt to call for help, even as three of them grabbed for him and the fourth, the one he'd been targeting to start with, he noticed, moved in close in what was obviously supposed to be an intimidating display before they dismantled him.

He sighed, his voice almost bored as he spoke. "I'm not sure what's worse about this situation: that you honestly think you have me outnumbered or that you've failed to take into account the simplistic nature of your cybernetic enhancements. Including their firewalls." With that comment, several tendrils shot out from his arms to make contact with the cybernetics of his opponents, easily overloading the components enough to cause feedback which in turn fried their owners.

A self-satisfied smirk in place, Brainy checked that none of them were too badly injured, simply unconscious, and left to see where else he could help out.

Re: The Fight!

[unsc-rabbit.livejournal.com]

Kelly came up against a pair of these (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Lethan). Dressed in tight leather, tattooed and agile, one wielded an electrostaff, another held a pair of vibroblades. Both wore armor. Whirling out of the way of a flying vibroblade, Kelly unloaded a clip into the first alien, her armor stopped the rounds which would have shredded right through Covenant armor.

"Hm. Well equipped." Grabbing a plasma grenade, she reached for one of the females aiming to attach the explosive to her. The alien however, whirled out of reach, her partner giving her a boost to help her leap over the Spartan's head. With an annoyed noise, Kelly threw the grenade at a furry, growling pirate and turned her attention back to the twins, drawing her combat knives.

"Two of you bitches against me? Piss poor odds for you." One of them kicked off a wall aiming a vicious roundhouse with her armored leg at Kelly's helmet. Whirling, the Spartan grabbed her assailant throwing her hard toward her partner. Her twin jumped out of the way and the alien simply rolled as she hit the ground leaping nimbly to her feet.

"Tch." This was going to take some work.

Re: The Fight!

[psi-flames.livejournal.com]

With everybody getting into the melee, Jono had sort of pinched the plantsuit back together again over his chest. Too many people that could get hurt on his own side for him to just start blasting.

So, hand-to-hand it was. Backed up by his guns and telepathy.

Re: The Fight!

[madeofwyn.livejournal.com]

Wyn is not good at the actual combat portion of... well, anything but Mortal Kombat, and her bodyguard has kind of abandoned her in favor of the bald, sociopathic supergenius they had just met. So far she's stuck fairly closely to a wall and has managed to avoid actually getting into a fight.

Well. Until right now, when one of the human (or at least humanoid) members of the crew noticed her sliding along the corridor. He gives Wyn a sadistic grin and sends a tendril of what looks like animated shadow towards her almost lazily. She sees it coming a second too late, and she's trapped against the wall she was hoping to escape along.

Wyn's not completely helpless, though; the ghostly-white concentric circles spin to life again, this time in front of her right eye as she focuses on trying to burn away the shadows holding her to the wall.

Re: The Fight!

[potentialmonkey.livejournal.com]

"YOU SHALL DIE TINY ONE!"

Ron just stared at the figure before him.

"...you are the second biggest sumo-ninja I have ever seen."

Angered, the alien sumo ninja attacks with nunchucks, which Ron deftly blocks with the Lotus Blade.

Re: The Fight!

[deadpan-shifter.livejournal.com]

Now that he's been pulled out of his fuzzy state of self-induced shock, Caden has gone a bit loopy. Thrown into a battle situation, he does the first thing he can, which is morph panther. Unfortunately, he finds himself faced with an opponent equipped with the same skill set, and quickly finds himself embroiled in a battle of tooth, claw, and feline brawn. Rolling onto his paws, he growls, backing away from the fuzzy, infuriated space-kitty shape-shifting pirate, tail whipping from side to side in utmost agitation.

Large, muscular cat or not, he is rather screwed at this point, as his brain is fried from the realization of the events of the past couple of hours, not to mention he's bleeding from several scratches and bites inflicted by his adversary. Yellow eyes narrowing, he prepares to pounce, willing to attempt yet again to get the upper hand when he is bowled over by the aforementioned infuriated space-kitty. Loud growling and clawing ensues, in addition to some rather pained yowls and the shuddering of floor and wall as the animals slam each other into things.

Fun, no?

Not really.

Re: The Fight!

[thehollycopter.livejournal.com]

Holly may have looked like she had a disadvantage because of her size, but this was nothing next to taking down a bull troll or an adult demon. Which she'd done. More then once.

She was currently literally staring down a rather average humanoid, who seemed to be rooted in place. Their eyes were locked on hers, and when she spoke, her voice seemed almost angelic. She seemed to be telling this one to attack his comrades, and he wasn't arguing.

Help From the Outside - Motoko and Samus

[cityship]

On the outside of the ship, there's someone coming to their aid, in a spaceship, ready to make the pirates' lives hell, by damaging their ship/living quarters.

But the ship has powerful gun turrets of it's own and is considerably bigger.

They'll do whatever they can to occupy the pirates and make their lives hell, but they're facing crazy odds themselves while doing it.

Re: Help From the Outside - Motoko and Samus

[gogopowersuit.livejournal.com]

And help came. The Gunship might not be that big, but it certainly is speedy compared to the big, bulky pirate ship. It zoomed around, managing to avoid most damage.

The Gunship flew round the pirate's. No shots were being fired back yet. In a rather impressive maneuver, they flew round, circling the turrets. Got a little present for them.

Retreat!

[cityship]

Someone got spanked and makes a run for it, but who?

Reaction (React to the pirates disappearing)

[cityship]

The pirates have lost. Soundly. Between Motoko and Samus wrecking the hell out of their ship from the outside, and getting their asses kicked soundly on the inside, a retreat is in order.

But they are sore losers.

"Po Staw," Captain Thux hisses, as she drags an egg-shaped case on the ship with her, limping from her injuries in the fight.

The case is one about large enough to hold a basketball. It's got a hard shell, made of who-knows-what, could be adamantium, intertron, one of the many hard substances that can be salvaged from the worlds, but the damn thing won't crack. That means it's important.

It's salvage--they did get their hands on quite a bit anyway, but this case--this case was marked as special. A weapon of some kind. It should fetch a pretty price on the markets.

It's also something the crew will later have to spend a considerable amount of time and effort to recover. When they find out they were within yards of it, they'll rue the fact that they were so close to getting their hands on it earlier on in the game.

"We're cutting out. Draw our boys in."

When the bo'sun commands it to the 'porter bay, every pirate in the bay is emergency teleported back to the ship. Including the dead ones. (They're still fresh enough to go to the markets).

And they are sore losers, they are. The bay doors close, and she says, "And pull out. Give 'em a taste of the void. Let's see 'em try to save themselves while sucking down nothing."

The pirates have retreated to their ship and the ship's hatch is closed, but what does that mean?

Reaction (Do subthreads of the characters trying to help each other from being dragged out)

[cityship]

They are sore losers, they are. The pirates' ship shoots out of the hole and with that breach not sealed, everything is sucked towards the hole in the hull. Vacuum.

There is a clear door blocking the bridge off and someone had better get the thing closed, or they'll all be whipped outside. In the meantime, HOLD ON TO SOMETHING.

The Sacrifice

[cityship]

"The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it."

[ooc: Don't tag in this unless you're told to by the mods.]

Re: The Sacrifice

[cabbage-butt.livejournal.com]

Brainiac 5 is a Legionnaire. He's a problem solver. This is a problem. Ergo, he intends to solve it.

For this reason, Brainy lets himself drift towards the door, trying to use his shield powers to keep from getting sucked through, but his shield belt has been damaged, twice at this point, and glitchy. He can do personal shielding, but barely extend it properly, leaving him forced to cling to a handle near the door, and only reinforcing said grip with actual force. Oh, also he lost his toolkit in the fight--including his rebreather, and his transuit got ripped by a particularly nasty individual with a laser whip. This is making things mildly inconvenient. It's not as if he has time to make repairs to any of it.

But all he has to do is reach for the button to close the door. He can see the hull trying to heal, but the powerful force of the air rushing into vacuum is preventing it. If he can cut off the rush of air...

Admittedly, then there's the problem of the pirates hovering beyond the hole, for some reason, waiting there as if they're--wait, that light on the end of that array--

"They're charging some sort of beam weapon! They're going to fire through the hole on the hull!" he calls over the rush of air, hoping the others can hear him, and hoping one of their powers is more...conducive to solving the problem, still reaching for the button. They'll have to open it up to the void again, but they could use half a second of actually being able to breathe enough to think. "If they do, it'll cut through the entire ship!"

The engines, too. Everything. Without any sort of outer shielding in the way...

Closing the door to the bridge will not help them as much as they need it to. They have to do something to help the hull close in time so that they can have some proper shielding. But they also need to stop the rush of air sucking them all through. People are slipping...

Scratch that, now Brainy is slipping. His shield fritzes and his own grip is too weak to hold on without the reinforcement.

"Grife!"

He slips, slams into the bulkhead, and has to hold onto the edge of the door with bruised and battered fingers to prevent himself from being spaced.

Reaction Thread - B5s death (Brief reactions, everyone pop in a tag)

[cityship]

B5--the robotic Brainiac 5, that is--is gone. Fried to unholy hell saving them from being sucked into space, and blocking a beam weapon from being shot in through the hole in the ship.

Re: Reaction Thread - B5s death (Brief reactions, everyone pop in a tag)

[thethirdhalfa.livejournal.com]

She didn't cry when she had been hurt. She had managed not to cry despite how badly it hurt. She could count how many times she actually cried on one hand, even counting the few tears when she had let out when Vlad hurt her.

This? This hurt. This hurt more than anything. There was no confusion in it. There was no pride to keep her being strong. There was nothing about this that could have weakened the pain in anyway. Not being a mistake, or some other thing. Even with Jaime, she didn't even really knew him that well personally.

She stared at Brainiac 5 with wide eyes. She could remember everything with him clearly. So clearly. It wasn't even an hour ago they had been playing. He took her seriously enough to think it was safe to play a game with the pirates, keeping score. He took her seriously after she proved her age didn't mean anything. He was so nice and fun to talk to. Even when her playfulness had a bad result...he had helped her with the wound that still hurt at her side. It hurt a lot still, but the pain...it was nothing. Nothing compared to the pain that filled her now.

He had been her friend.

And she had to watch him die.

"NO!" Dani screamed, flying, because limping would have been too slow, and wrapping her arms around what was left of him. "No, no, no!" She kept screaming over and over, tears falling freely because it hurt too much not to let them go.

Moving On -- (Keep this in one thread)

[cityship]

There's still... there's still work to be done. The bridge is finally theirs, the others are possibly in trouble. They need to get control of the ship. It's time for the brains to get to work.

They've done it. They've taken the bridge.

The sacrifice made in doing so probably isn't worth it, but they have to make sure it wasn't for nothing.

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

Jaime is the one to break the silence.

"We have to--"

He sucks in a deep, shaky breath.

"Everyone, I know--I know it's--and I'm sorry I--"

One of their own just died. They're mourning. He's mourning. He's guilty.

His voice gets stronger, though, and he says, "I don't think I can say... that anything could make it worth his death. His death wasn't a sacrifice--it was a mistake. This whole thing--I could have planned this whole thing better, made better choices. Getting us all through this alive was my responsibility."

If the scarab didn't recycle all his body waste, he'd be wiping at his eyes. The tears threaten to spill anyway.

"But the others are still depending on us. If there's even one person left to save, we have to make sure this doesn't happen to them. He died to save all of us, to give us this chance--we have to get to work, and work fast, so it wasn't for nothing."

With that, wires and mechanical tubes creep out from the pack at his back, and hook into some of the consoles, like he'd hacked into Hal earlier, lifting him off the floor.

He isn't a hacker, but the scarab is. Thanks to the scarab, the work is being split up so they all have a chunk of it. Numbers start appearing on the screens of each of the consoles.

They need to get to work.