Off to work

[cityship]

||Attention, Attention,|| Stacy's voice rang out suddenly throughout the ship. ||Will the following personnel please report to the Obs Deck:||

||Michael Blanc,||
||Kazami Shiro,|
||Andrew Davis,||
||Aibghalien Marsai,||
||Spiderman--616 universe,||
||Julian Keller,||
||Nanashi,||
||Katara,||
||Lash,||
||Wags-Tail-Alot,||
||Phillip,||
||and Vita.||

||Attention, Attention...|| The message repeats over and over, until all of the people she was calling reported to the Obs Deck.

Once they get there, they're greeted with an unusual sight. The mouth in the huge statue on the wall opens, revealing a screen. On it, the dossier for the mission flickers into display, understandable to every person there. Smaller copies of the dossier appear in holographic form in front of everyone.

The planet's stats, right next to a rotating picture of it, a dusty brown orb with orange clouds overhead:

Planet Designation: Arkez prime
Status: Terrestrial, H-class.
Non-sentient life: Scattered pockets of hardy flora and fauna.
Semi-Sentient Life: None.
Sentient Life: None.
Water: 13% of the planet's surface.

Climate: Arid, desert climate [Click here for cultural equivalents for non-Earth cultures.]
Landscape: Dry, arid, desert landscape.
Air: Normoxic concentration: 28% oxygen, 62% nitrogen, 5% xenon, 5% trace gases, such as hydrogen, krypton, and argon.

Air Pressure: 14.543 pounds per square inch.
Sky: Red with orange clouds.
Sun: A class F2V, yellow star.

Warnings: Terrain can be hazardous. Recommend caution when navigating terrain.

Mission: Minor Ohm splinter force detected on planet's surface. No Node detected, minor threat. Destroy before reinforcements arrive. Ohm artillery detected. Unable to send in heavy weaponry to engage. Ambush/Reconnaissance team will deploy to reduce Ohm threat prior to full engagement. Details to be provided.

Comments

[ohm-nom-nom.livejournal.com]

The Grunts, perhaps owing to the lack of a Node to really control them, reacted much more animalistically to the group, their advance more like a stampede than anything else. Some of them fell to the crew's initial attacks, but the rest kept coming, a teeming mass of scything claws and blades.

The Tank, however, maintained its composure far better than its comrades. While the Grunts moved for the group, it was already making its way back to protect the Firebugs, its powerful legs and bounding leaps putting it well ahead of Julian, Katara, and Aibghalien.

[afro-wunderkind.livejournal.com]

NOT SO FAST! In a remarkable motion of self control since her initial outburst, Lash had bit her lip during most of the following conversation until the surprise attack. After letting out a small squeek of surprise, she had then called upon her Griffin Power using her morpher. Suddenly, her outfit was much more visible. But with it came agility, weapons and the strength she needed to take care of business.

Oh and also this neat little attack that required a bunch of hand movements but allowed her to reverse a creature's flow of time. And guess who she was concentrating those powers on right now.

I hope this works!

That's right Tank, start walking backwards...maybe?

[wolf-that-grins.livejournal.com]

One Grunt barely had time to register that it's leg was missing before said appendage was driven straight into it's brain. Wags had entered into the fray in Crinos, and his actions were a stunning ballet of horrific carnage.

[memory-hax.livejournal.com]

Dropping quickly out of a look up, he'd have time for that later, Phillip dodged the first attack and rolled to his feet.

Ducking around a pillar, he pulled a blue memory out of his pocket as a belt materialized around his waist. cried the Memory as he dodged another, spinning around.

Fang was nowhere in sight. Well obviously it felt like he didn't need him YET. That was a small comfort for now at least.

"Henshin!" proclaimed Phillip, slamming the memory in with a cry of from the belt as music played, encasing him in dark blue armor as he pulled a gun from his chest.

[andyallgrownup.livejournal.com]

Andy continued attacking the grunts, having his staff appear so that he could do so.

[kaya-waterwave.livejournal.com]

Katara would have been more than happy to tell Aibghalien how grateful she was for his power boost, or Lash how great her time stop was at least slowing down the tank, but there was no time. Once she saw that the tank was at least going to go head to head with whatever magic a power ranger could manage, the window with which people would act would rapidly close. Julian had flown her near enough to the oasis that she could feel the water stirring all around her, waiting to be used. Who was she to put off something that could at least break through their defenses.

So she acted first, bringing the water around her in a very small tidal wave around her. She wished she had more to work with, but that was all right: so long as she had the boost and was still active, she could reuse the water so long as she used it quickly and dangerously. She formed the water like a dome around the firebugs, trapping them momentarily before hardening the water into sharp spikes to pierce into the Ohm fighters. Even if this didn't stop them, whatever they were able to do with fire would at least be dampened to such an extent they would be able to concentrate on the Tank and the grunts.

Like the others, she was hoping to buy the heavier hitters on the team time to formulate their own attacks on the tank.

[for-magic.livejournal.com]

If you could open a hole about an inch wide in that dome, I'd be appreciative, Aibghalien sent to Katara. Just for a second.

[kaya-waterwave.livejournal.com]

Katara heard the prompt and had just enough time to open the dome for just an inch. She could hardly look at the others: she was concentrating all of her efforts on the firebugs. She was sweating now, but that was for the effort and the speed at which she was doing this.

Please hurry!

[for-magic.livejournal.com]

"Disintegrate (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/disintegrate.htm)." The wizard reappeared as he spoke the word aloud, a line of green light flashing from his extended finger, through the hole in the water, at one of the firebugs. A crystal hung in the air next to him as he tapped the energy contained within to fuel a spellcasting bereft of gestures and words. "Ice Storm (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/iceStorm.htm)."

Done, close it. Let's see how they liked THAT.

[shootingblancs]

The group's sniper, meanwhile, had taken up residence on another hilltop - and the Tank hadn't seemed to notice him yet. In the chaos of the combat, it was easy to take out one or two of the little Grunts, but Michael wanted a shot at one of the bigger prizes.

The firebugs are in too much cover. Draw them out; we'll see how they handle depleted uranium at supersonic speeds.

[ohm-nom-nom.livejournal.com]

More and more Ohm Grunts fall to the crew's attacks, but by this point, it was obvious they were merely distractions themselves, keeping the majority of the crew busy while the Firebugs moved to a better position.

Not to run.

To fire.

They began to glow heavily as all three charged up to fire at the main group. You'd better hurry up, guys, unless you want to end up charred spots on the ground.

The Tank, on the other hand, had been successfully trapped by Lash's attack, but eventually it managed to break free somehow. With a bright flash of energy and a powerful roar, it tore free of it's temporal prison, and began bolting straight for the Firebugs, even faster than it would seem possible for such a massive frame.

[shootingblancs]

He was the one with the vantage point, which meant he noticed the Firebugs moving as he dropped the crosshairs over them. That wasn't good.

Firebugs moving into bombardment position! Find cover or finish this quickly - I'm taking a shot in ten seconds; someone better join me!

The target sights settled right over one of the Firebugs' exposed cores.

[metalwebhead.livejournal.com]

As Spidey continued fighting the Ohm, there was something that could be heard as he did...

"Web Ball!" One Ohm was covered in a net of webbing. "Spider...Sting!" Another was uppercut away. "Web Throw!" A third was snagged with a web line and tossed into another. He wasn't letting the Riders take all the attack name-calling fun!

Watching the Tank charge towards the Firebugs and the line of Ohm in his way, an idea came to his mind.

"Let's see how you bugs handle this!" Spidey said, charging at them... and using them as spring boards, crushing them into the ground and knocking them airborne before slamming into one last one feet first, sending it spiraling into the Tank. "That... is Maximum Spider!" A moment later, he fired a web-line, intending on stopping the Tank himself... and got yanked along for the ride. "WOAAAAAAAAH! STOP! HEEL! STAY! SIT!"

[twin-fans.livejournal.com]

V3 doesn't even know he's being mocked. He puts a fist through the thorax of one of the grunts, then snaps off one of the claws and pins a neighbor to the ground. The Tank is already moving to protect the firebugs! With the obvious stated, V3 takes the two corpses in each hand and hurls them to clear a bit of a path.

With that done, he leaps into the air. It's an impressive jump, he nearly clears two hundred feet from a standing position. He lands, then leaps again. I'll take the firebug on the far right. I might not be able to kill it in one shot, but... His twin fans start to swirl, and he circles in the air two, three, four times to build up centrifugal force, using his scarves and the spinning of his fans to keep him aloft before angling down at one of the Firebugs. "V3 Centrifugal Kick!"

His regular kicks packed about thirty tons of force behind him. His various Rider Kicks could pack half again that level of power behind it, if not more. This one would build up momentum enough to put him through a battleship's hull and several decs, if he'd used it that way.

Of course, if that Tank beat him there, all of that previous paragraph was kind of pointless.

[kaya-waterwave.livejournal.com]

She took a breath. The firebugs were at least a little slowed down, but they weren't down yet, and they would still be able to attack the others if they weren't somehow slowed down. It didn't look like the dome of water was going to keep them down either: she was going to have to stop them and give them time, just as Lash had.

She only had seconds to do this too, so she wasted no time: now she went straight for the joints of the Firebugs, icing them good and tight, so that the others had the chance to take them out before the tank got to protect them. With any luck, they'd be sitting ducks for the next attack, and once they were out of the way, all of them could converge on the tank.

She hoped.

[telekinetic_badass]

Julian followed up on Katara's attack, but rather than going for the Firebugs themselves, he fired a massive tk blast at the ground beneath them. If he could destabilize it enough, he could knock them off balance to throw off their aim.

[for-magic.livejournal.com]

Time for the old wizarding standby.

Aibghalien quickly cast a Grease spell beneath the charging tank's descending legs. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/grease.htm) ()

[memory-fang.livejournal.com]

Having picked his shot carefully, Phillip slotted the Trigger memory into the gun and aimed at one of the tanks's legs, one of the others that Aibghalien wasn't aiming at.

announced the gun as Phillip fired a great beam of blue energy at the attacker.

[ohm-nom-nom.livejournal.com]

The Tank, despite taking serious wounds from the attacks and losing two of its legs, barreled through the group closest to the Firebugs, thrashing wildly at them.

As for the Firebugs, it was too little too late. Two of them did collapse from the wounds they suffered, and the third was knocked off balance from having its joints frozen and having the ground beneath it turned to rubble, but it managed to get off a last-second shot, sending a massive ball of fiery red plasma hurtling towards the crew.

They had only moments before most of them would be unpleasant smears on the ground.

[ooc: hold off on tagging for a bit, this next bit is in multiple parts]

[armsraced.livejournal.com]

Yet that wouldn't happen, since in that moment there was a crackle of energy and a bright flash of light between the crew and the oncoming plasma ball, and when that died down a strange alien figure appeared.

He held up a hand, and an odd disk-shaped device on the back of his hand began to glow. In that instant, the plasma ball halted where it was, hanging in midair menacingly, but thankfully it was no longer a threat.

"Commander," the figure said into a communicator on his other wrist. "I've found the splinter force we were looking for. It appears they were in mid-combat with some other forces. Judging by the ship in orbit, it appears to be the crew of one of the Transmigration ships."

"Acknowledged," came the reply, "Revus, you and Ippli start clean up. I'll be there in a second."

"Sir, yes sir!" the figure, apparently named Revus, said.

"Ippli, you heard the commander," he said with a flick of the wrist, sending the hovering plasma ball into the remaining Grunts, vaporizing all of them with a massive flash of light. "Finish off that artillery."

[armsraced.livejournal.com]

There was another flash of light, and now another figure--much more gaunt and alien looking than Revus--appeared.

"On it!" Ippli said, hovering over the injured Firebug. He raised his hand, a similar disk-shaped device glowing on the back of it, and sent the Ohm creature flying into a nearby outcropping of rocks, causing it to burst from the force of the impact.

"Commander," Ippli said, looking down at the Tank, "Tall, dark, and ugly is all yours!"

[armsraced.livejournal.com]

Now, a third figure appeared, this time a serpentine being, with a humanoid torso and a massive snake-tail in place of legs.

Armed with the same disk-shaped device as the other two, he lifted his hand, raising the Tank into the air, and with a flick of his wrist, the creature burst apart. Bug guts flew through the air in a rather grisly fashion.

The other two moved next to the third figure, who was now quietly looking over at the crew.

[ooc: Done! Tagging can now resume.]

[telekinetic_badass]

Julian was looking back at the new comers. Reinforcements? Did Stacy pop out more crew members?

They had splattered the Ohm, but... well, he knew from experience that that didn't always mean much.

«Don't let your guard down yet. Anyone recognize the new guys?»

[for-magic.livejournal.com]

Scenestealers, Aibghalien said with some irritation -- the bruised ego of a wizard who'd been about to do something awesome couldn't be soothed by so little as a couple of aliens saving their butts. But they seem to have identified us. I've still got plenty left; I'd recommend that however we choose to engage them, I stay at medium range with defense spells ready, just in case.

...Also, this is probably where they reveal in some way that they're capable of hearing our transmissions.

I am done editing now!

[twin-fans.livejournal.com]

Considering that they haven't made any hostile moves, I'd certainly hope you'd stay your hand. V3 walks back to join his crew. They know we're the current crew of Transmigration 9. And they effortlessly took out the Ohm. The fact that they don't seem hostile at the moment is a good thing.

He stops, brushing bits of Firebug off his shoulder, and turns to examine the newcomers. V3 can't help but wish his Matrix Eye was still working, he can't examine them with X-rays now. The snake man resembles a naga, a being of myth from my world. I can't tell you much more than that, except it might be wise to introduce ourselves. The last bit is more directed at Julian than anyone else.