Lirath - Ship Survival

[cityship]

 As the battle raged outside, those remaining aboard Stacy had their hands full preparing for the incoming flood of refugees.

Positioned near the Bleed-Gate orbiting Lirath, Stacy stood ready to receive the refugees. Ship after ship ascended as quickly as they could, some of them making a break for the Bleed-Gate itself while the smaller ships were forced to dock at Stacy, unloading their cargo of refugees before setting off again for the planet's surface again to take on more passengers.

Several small units of GIA soldiers were also sent up to help the Transmigration crew take in the massive amount of refugees, many of whom were tired, wounded, and scared. It wouldn't take long for the ship to begin filling with people.

With the battle raging outside, and the Ohm clambering outside, trying to get in, it would be a tall order to keep all of the refugees safe and calm, but the crew didn't have much choice.

[ooc: Open!]

Comments

Hacking into Stacy

[cityship]

Run by: Pixle
NPCS: Pixle

The visible parts of Stacy weren't the only things the Ohm were attacking. Deep inside the core, an Ohm hacker had been tracing the ship's signals and being incredibly effective at it. Traveling amongst the millions of tubes and dataflow, the anti-virus programs and firewalls put up by the crew had left it mostly undaunted, and it was making incredibly rapid, dangerous progress. Even more so when it began to lay down creatures in all of the dataveins as it moved along, causing chaos and trying to overload the systems.

|| Attention Cortana, Andromeda. I believe that an Ohm hacker is trying to get to my main programming AI core. Due to the path it is undertaking, I calculate that we have around thirty minutes before it succeeds completely. It is also sending creatures to permanently disable the breathing and gravity functions on the ship. Both of you must hurry and get a small team of the crewmen to help you. ||

The situation could turn incredibly dire soon, especially if the ship already had a lot of complications that needed to be fixed. But this was a different beast entirely - an inside job that would require things not yet tested. Moreover, since a lot of the crew was currently occupied fighting off the Ohm, they'd need to get the team established very quickly.

"You realize how risky this is? We've never really sent humans into the dataflow before." Cortana crossed her arms, the worry about the safety of the crew evident. "Still, if it's the only way..." She was already busy fighting against some of the virus bugs, trying to buy the both of them as much time as possible. Sadly, it was a losing battle for them both. The hacker simply was too powerful faced alone.

"Considering our alternatives, we don't have much of a choice," the other AI answered, already busy scanning the database to select individuals still counted as being present on the ship. While this could be a perfect opportunity to piggyback into Stacy's system themselves and get their questions answered, she knews that this was neither the time nor place. The needs of many outweigh the needs of the few, and if the crew had no air, there would be too many deaths on their hands. She opened up a message to all those she could establish contact with. "This is AI Andromeda asking for emergency aid. We've got an Ohm hacker trying to get into Stacy's core and we need your aid in stopping it. If you are able to do so, please head toward this room." A small map appeared to guide them, the arrow pointing toward their destination. "If you are close enough to make it without injuring yourselves from the current attacks, please rendezvous there. We shall activate the data machine in three minutes. Understand that the process has never been tested before and could be potentially hazardous." The AI was not one to mince words. "Cortana and myself will greet you and explain more once you arrive."

Upon arriving to the room, the crew would notice a large laser-like machine that was attached to Stacy's wall, looking like a techno organic computer. There were a few chairs and a small series of tubes and wires that were ready to connect to their body. It...didn't look to fun, but dire times required dire methods.

[[Posting order will go as characters arrive]]

[appletastic]

What's that? Stacy's in trouble? Applejack is on the case! She set off for the room at a gallop, eager to do something, anything to lend a hoof. No one would let her join the main battle outside, it was too dangerous for a pony without protection or a weapon. She wasn't a diplomat, not in the slightest, and she didn't know the first thing about fixin' everypony up. So what could she do?

Whatever was just announced!

She stopped in the appointed room with the strange machines at a skid, looking around with wide eyes.

"Hey, does anypony know what's goin' on? I sure don't see any cores being tossed around."

[chosenlightchld.livejournal.com]

Hikari's eyes widened as she heard the message over the comms. She knew enough about what was being said to know that her and Tailmon were going to be some of the best suited people for this.

Which is why she and Tailmon were running there pretty fast. "The Ohm are trying to break into the programming of the ship. Stacy's core is well... her brain," Hikari said, answering Applejack's question as soon as they made it there.

Tailmon stretched. "It's been a while since we've been in a data network, hasn't it?"

Hikari nodded. "Yeah, it has."

[yuuki-no-derp.livejournal.com]

Taichi on the other hand was all business, even if he wore a grim smile on his face. He had been waiting for this moment and he gestured to Agumon who was polishing off a plate of slop. "C'mon Agumon, we've got hunting to do."

Rushing towards the room, he threw a hand up. "Headcount! Who've we got?"

[masterofnun.livejournal.com]

Computers? Heroics? A last-minute rescue? Possible death in a dramatic way?

Frickin' dope.

Punchy rushes in, having barely had time to get his cumbersome costume on and nearly tripping as he tries to run, open a door and zip up his left boot one-handed.

"P to the 'Unchy is the hizzouse, dawgs! I'm here and game for combat! What's the scoop?"

[fattynoparents]

By now, Chell decides her entire existence on Stacy can be summed up with a big, fat "did not know what she was getting into". After somehow granting her robot frenemy access to a mech suit, she quickly realizes that without some kind of crazy robotic armor of her own (which everyone else seemed to have), she is worse than useless and is probably going to get killed by staying in the hangar.

That will not do.

Given another option, she's quick to take it (no matter how reluctant she is to leave Wheatley to his own devices), even if most of the message's technicalities are lost on her. One thing, at least, is clear, and it is that there was no time to waste--she sprints the whole way there, dashing inside, not entirely sure of what awaits.

[neverwastenaya.livejournal.com]

Tenaya had just returned from Lirath's surface, having helped with a couple last-minute Ranger/Rider evacuations and getting weapons and vehicles out of the blast zone. The morpher recharging, she raced to the room.

"Direct interface with a computer? I'm your girl."

STAGE 1-1 [Everyone]

[cityship]

[Same order as the first part, please]

Now that they were inside, both figurines were not flickering as much as before. In fact one could almost think both looked very humanlike, if Cortana wasn't sporting purplish skin.

"The creatures outside are actually twofold," Andromeda explained. "Those in blue are part of the ship's internal programming. Red is foreign data. In this case, programs created by the Ohm hacker to get into the database. Stacy's internal programs are trying to deal with them." She pointed to everyone's purple glow haze that manifested around their plantsuits, or in Applejack's and the Digimon's case, their entire body. "This is the best we could do. The ship’s programs will recognize you are friendly and will not attack you, unless you try to enter pieces of Stacy that are under strict guard. This...might cause problems later on but we'll deal with that as we get to it."

She looked at the assembled team. "Currently we have two problems. First the Hacker is trying to get into Stacy's main controls. That could be as dangerous as getting the entire ship shut off. We have to stop them from that. Applejack, Punchy, Chell, Angie. You'll be going with Cortana to engage it as fast as we can." Three bikes rose from the white floor, forming into black, glowing bikes. A few seconds later, a pony-sized one appeared as well. "These will allow you navigate inside the system as fast as we can take you without suffering internal damage. Once we get there, Cortana will provide you with weapons to aid you on this task in addition to your own skills."

"The other is the Hacker sending out data creatures all over the network," Cortana continued. "For that we'll need your Digimon, and your assistance, Tenaya, Tai and Hikari." From the ground three glowing blue swords-like weapons appeared. "These are weapons from my world, or an approximation of them. They can fire code that will break down a virus or be used as a blunt weapon. I can't keep them active for long, but they should be fully charged and functional until we can take down the Hacker. Tai, Hikari, I know you rely on your digimon, but at least you'll be able to defend yourself should the situation turn dire."

Weapons and bikes given out, both AIs nodded at each other.

"Here's the plan; Tai, Tenaya, Hikari, Augumon and Tailmon will go out first and attack the monsters, distracting them and lead them on a chase. The ones located here are weak, but as we'll venture deeper into the core where the nests are, there will be much stronger ones. We'll be in touch with the other team."

"For the rest of us, we'll be riding the bikes, dodging the attacks as much as possible and get to the Hacker, as soon as possible. Time is distorted to our advantage here; while we have twenty five minutes of time left, the dataflow operates differently and moving at an accelerated space compared to the ship. Every ten minutes here feels like one on Stacy. Therefore, we have two hours and fifty minutes before Stacy's core is breached. Let's make the most of it."

They were done talking. "Get ready!"

[appletastic]

No matter which way she looked at it, Applejack couldn't help but find the whole situation eerie. Purple lines like someone was deciding which way to cut her up! The data concept was still nothing but a bunch of waffle to her, but even she could understand danger. Red lines meant bad news. They'd need to be bucked right out of the system, whatever that meant.

She trotted over to the strange thing with wheels, hesitantly tapping it with a hoof. Nothing like it had ever been seen in Equestria---usually if something had wheels, she was the one pulling it. Maybe she was pulling someone on this odd little thing.

"Beg pardon, but where'd the saddle get off to? How's a pony supposed to pull this thing?"

[yuuki-no-derp.livejournal.com]

"Not a problem, I mean I've never used a sword before but how hard can swish-swish-stab be?" exclaimed Taichi.

Turning to Applejack, he remarked, "Maybe ride with someone else?"

[chosenlightchld.livejournal.com]

Hikari nodded, she and Tailmon getting ready to move. Hikari's hand grasped the energy sword, right as she focused and activated her pactio with Negi. Who knew how it was going to work here, but it worked pretty fine, actually. "Thanks. This'll probably come in handy."

She then turned to Applejack, blinking. "I think you're supposed to ride on top of it."

[neverwastenaya.livejournal.com]

Tenaya gave the sword an experimental twirl in one hand before making sure her fingertip blaster was ready. The morpher she was keeping in reserve, due to its low charge.

"Make sure the other end goes into the bad guy, there," she warned Taichi, smirking.

[fattynoparents]

Chell, too, was staring at the bike as if she'd never seen one before in her entire life. She understood the principle of a motorcycle, but she couldn't recall ever having ridden one, or even a bicycle, for that matter. All in all, sticking her on something with two wheels seemed like a Bad Idea.

But hey, it wasn't like she'd ever dealt with Aerial Faith Plates or Excursion Funnels before they were thrown at her, and mounting the bike was easy enough. Riding it would be another story, but those were bridges to cross when she got to them.

In the meantime, Chell gave the handles a tentative squeeze and nearly fell off the engine revved loudly.

That was a good thing, right?

STAGE 1-2 [Teneya, Tai, Hikari]

[cityship]

[Posting order is as posted above]

As they were led into the strange world, the scene began to shift from a strange city what looked like a data graveyard. The noise was more of a hum now, save by the noise of the savage reddish glowing beasts. Blue data flowed in everything, even outlining the rocks around then.

"We locate one of the nests here," Andromeda explained. "We need to take out the main program that is sending out these creatures everywhere." She was about to say more, but a scream was heard about them and a fifty foot tall monster charged towards them.

"We have to take it down."

Re: STAGE 1-2 [Teneya, Tai, Hikari]

[neverwastenaya.livejournal.com]

"Figures," Tenaya muttered. "Just when I might need to know how to use a Megazord..."

Waiting to charge at it, she fired with her blaster. Sure, it wasn't going to do a whole lot, but she wasn't going to go toe-to-toe with it without seeing what it was capable of from a distance.

Re: STAGE 1-2 [Teneya, Tai, Hikari]

[yuuki-no-derp.livejournal.com]

"Will a giant dinosaur do?" replied Taichi, holding out his Digivice which thankfully came with him in this weird process. "Agumon!"

"Right! Agumon evolve!" A fountain of orange light erupted from where Agumon stood and a huge dinosaur charged from it with a roar of "GREYMON! MEGA FLAME!"

Oh yeah and there was fire. Lots of it.

Re: STAGE 1-2 [Teneya, Tai, Hikari]

[chosenlightchld.livejournal.com]

Hikari frowned. "Tailmon, let's go!"

"Right!" Tailmon shouted as she started running off towards the creature, not even evolving as Hikari took to the sky. Hopefully they wouldn't need to have her evolve just yet.

Hikari glared at the creature, thrusting her arms forward and letting two pink energy blasts fire forth towards it, right as Tailmon ducked to the side and jumped up into the air as well.

"Neko Punch!" She shouted, punching the creature in the chest with all the power an adult level digimon could muster.

[cityship]

The creature was stopped for a few seconds from the combined attacks, as Andromeda looked on. The fire's stopping it from running towards us, but it won't be long. We'll need a bit more firepower. She looked at all of them. Continue attacking as you've started.

Something was starting to appear close to them, the blueish wire silhouette very large gun of some sort that required three people to handle. However it was taking time to transfer from one area o the ship to the other with all the data interruption. If the three of you can hold it back for another minute I should be able to get some defensive weapons to us...

Then, things to worse. Another creature began to roar on the other side, although this time it was of a thankfully of a much smaller size, but still just as deadly.

Looks like it isn't alone...

OOC

[neverwastenaya.livejournal.com]

[Question before I tag again--should we wait for you to NPC before continuing in the posting order?]

Re: OOC

[cityship]

[Sorry that was my fault I wasn't getting a notif that Hikari had tagged. You guys can do two turns this time before I tag again! 8Ub]

STAGE 1-3 [Chell, Applejack, Angie, Punchy]

[cityship]

[Posting order is as posted above]

After leaving the main area, the four speed alongside in near silence, the silhouette of the purple AI in front of them, floating in the air.

But the Ohm would not let themselves be fooled so easily. If they could go as fast, they would just do the same. Suddenly, four monster-like bikes, having mouths in their wheels and screeching horribly, began to catch up on them from behind. The reddish glow told them all the needed to know.

"Trouble at six o'clock!" she warned them, looking backwards. "We'll need to take them down. Press the handles on your bikes downward and there should be a blue trailing light that appears behind. That's a data blocker, and it lasts for around ten seconds. It contains a program designed to distort data and should be enough to scramble them into submission. You'll need to trick the creatures to chase after you and ride right into it. But be careful! It can be dangerous to you as well, if you get caught, alright?"

There wasn't time left for more of an explanation. Now it was all up to them.

"Here they come!"

[fattynoparents]

Riding the motorcycle was not as simple as she anticipated. Somehow she'd managed to stay upright, though she skidded and slipped much more than was comfortable. Chell found herself concentrating most of her efforts on keeping the thing balanced--crashing into the other members of the party would not be very conducive to success.

The appearance of the enemy, combined with her inexperience on a bike, proved to be nearly disastrous as Cortana's shouts caused her to act reflexively, slamming the gas and the data blocker at the same time. She rocketed forward, nearly losing control of the cycle in the process.

Oops.

[appletastic]

These...vehicles, or whatever they might be called, did not please Applejack at all. Mounting one of these things had been tough enough, and now she was just supposed to push on something to make it go. That made no sense. What was pulling it? How was it moving along?

Still, the sight of the others doing it was impossible to ignore. More hesitantly than usual, she pushed onward. The wobbling was terribly frightening, but manageable eventually. If she could balance on a bucking farm critter, she could do this.

The sight of Chell's data blocker startled her. It was just shooting things out the rear? Well---whatever it was, she got the idea that that was it. Like creating a wall. Like roping them in.

When a tentative push produced a wall that wasn't entirely disastrous, the pony leaned her head forward and wobbled at the next charge. Let's round us up some Ohm-critters, she suggested, making a quick movement from the side to drive them over. The trick's to trap 'em 'til they've got noplace else to go, ain't it?

[masterofnun.livejournal.com]

Punchy is pretty much the exact opposite of Applejack. Rather than hesitant, he's possibly a little bit too enthusiastic. Despite having fallen off the bike after the first time he hit the accelerator, he still manages to run into a wall the second time he hits the accelerator. And the third. And nearly crash into Chell the fourth (but hey, she probably didn't notice! He hopes!).

Fortunately, Punchy is from a hardy stock of wannabes, not dissuaded by petty obstacles like failure and probable death. So after all those false starts, he manages to not only keep the bike running, but apply all those hours of Cruisin' USA to good use as he keeps in formation with the rest of the team.

Which gets boring after like, five minutes. He tries to occupy himself by trying to think about what the data systems really are and why they've taken the shape of a city, but seriously, at what point does he get to waste some baddies?

He's positively beaming when the red motorcycles come after them. Finally, some action!

"Oh hell yeah. Bring the ruckus, biatch," he whispers to himself, slowing his bike down a bit. He's completely willing to be bait. Then, to the others, "make sure we don't accidentally ice each other! I'mma floss it back here and jack the rubber when they get close."

On the downside, his teammates may not be able to decipher that. On the upside, the monsters probably won't either. If they even speak English.

Oh well.

*[Pixle gave me permission to tag in here since my net access is uncertain this week. Angie's up next, and then we return to our regular order posted above. Thanks guys!]

[re-engineer.livejournal.com]

Angie took to the cycles right away. Having had the experience with Tron had definitely helped. The fact that her reflexes had carried over into the digital world was useful, too.

She looked over her shoulder at the approaching bikes, a wild grin forming on her face. Okay, it was dangerous. But that didn't mean it couldn't be fun, too.

Though the kid was going to make her work overtime trying to figure out what he said. "I honestly have no idea what the hell you're talking about," she told him. "But be careful, no matter what. We don't want to cross into each other's data blockers." She tested her own, whooping when she saw it streaming out from the back of her bike. "We don't know what their capabilities are. Hell, we barely know what our own are."