trans_9 | Hydroponics

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Hydroponics

Morgan had been in Hydroponics when the message first came over the comm system. He had exactly enough time to frown at his omnicomm before the power limiters engaged and the hyperspace compartments in his cloak failed. Like some outtake from a horrible collision of the Matrix and Harpo Marx, the entire contents of that space fell back into normal reality, leaving Morgan in a thigh-deep mound of guns, swords, and an electric guitar.

"Damn," he said, mildly, as he rolled his neck. He glanced off into the distance, quickly judged the amount of time he had till the robots he saw way out there reached him, then spent a few of those precious seconds tossing out a heads-up over the comms for his location.

That done, he dug out the multi-sheath he had made back when he used to carry weapons openly, slapped half-a-dozen blades through it, threw it on, then scooped up a pair of submachine guns.

"Why can't there be an army of good robots for once?" he muttered, flicking off the safeties.

(ooc: feel free to thread together to help Morgan defend against the evil robots. Also, evil robot NPCs are needed here!)

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Azula had already been in a bad mood when the message came over. What she heard was actually somewhat amusing.

"Is this the beginning of the end?" She mused out loud. She felt empty inside, a sort of emptiness she'd been fearing for so long.

It wasn't the Avatar that had taken away her bending and finally smothered the fire in her chest, but this new enemy.

Funny actually. Very funny. She actually chuckled.

Her bending was gone, now all they had to do was lock her away forever, if any of them lived that long.

Spotting a familiar face in the gloom of the plant life Azula waved with an uncharacteristic smile on her face. Whatever this new threat was she welcomed it either as a new challenge...or a final solution.

She had been in Hydroponics, spending some time with Zhin when she got the message. She closed her eyes a moment, gathering her thoughts. Ok. Evil thing taking over the ship (again). All powerful and murderous (again). Taking ALL the powers (this was somewhat new).

She couldn't bend either. She had already tried, to no avail. She sighed, tying her hair in a ponytail, and reached for the short sword she never unsheathed: it had been for decoration, but now it looked as if she would have to use it.

Kaya DID spot two people she knew though: Morgan, getting his guns ready, and Azula doing...nothing.

Good grief. She scampered over near her, sword at the ready.

"Because such a thing does not exist."

Grates a voice too deep to be human, as the Emperor's Champion, himself looking robotic in his powered armor, steps onto the scene, Black Sword carried in one hand, Bolt pistol in the other, ready to slay every last piece of tech-heresy that comes for them.

Back on the small rocky pillar that served as the glowsloths' environment, Nima was preparing to defend them.

"Stay. No - stay."

She'd trained them with minor commands, but they weren't used to being ordered to huddle together at the top of their pillar, never once breaking for the edges. Without her airbending, Nima had to force them into place with her hands, but once she thought the animals had the right idea, she climbed back down the pillar, already breathing deeply to counter her own exhaustion at having had to get up and down the hard way.

She stood by the entrance to hydroponics, where other fighters were already gathered, looking perhaps less than intimidating armed with nothing more than her staff.

She was breathing very deeply to calm herself. She'd made a vow never to harm a living creature, which barred her from fighting enemy soldiers - but that vow hadn't included machines.

"I have a herd to protect," she murmured to the man who seemed to be the leader of this particular resistance, the one who had the chiseled jawline and the many weapons. "If they break through, I have to go to them."

Leaving these people didn't feel right, either, but -

"- they live on a mountain with a flat top where the wounded might be able to rest," she added. Yes, the pillar might be a better defensible safezone if they needed time to care for the wounded.

"Hello, Azula," Morgan said cheerfully, as if things like this happened every day. "Hello, Kaya. Do me a favor and grab as many weapons as you can carry and still fight? I'd kind of like to retreat to a more defensible position at some point."

He said that, but Morgan was making a very good show of defending this position. Even slightly weakened and lacking access to any of his magic, he remained a warrior trained for every conscious year of his life. The guns in his hands spat bullets out at the encroaching androids, taking out not their bodies, but their weapons. Lasers, ballistic weapons, whatever, all proved less than useful with a bullet denting their precision barrel or disrupting their internal optics. That did nothing to stop the drones themselves, of course, but now that Azula and Kaya had appeared, he had every confidence that their little group would be superior in hand-to-hand. The trick was making sure the benders didn't get killed at range.

"Let's be fair," Morgan said, "that's because no one ever builds one. I don't suppose you have access to any heavy weaponry in that thing, do you? This whole one-at-a-time business is probably not to the advantage of the two people facing off against a horde."

Morgan turned sideways just in time for a bullet fired his way to slam heavily into his coat where it covered his abdomen. Rather than punching through both garment and Akashic, the bullet deformed against the seeming cloth, then fell away. His armor, at least, still worked -- though to judge by his wince, he was gonna have one hell of a bruise.

"Hello," he said, with a friendly enough smile even as the guns in his hands chattered. "A mountain? I'm not certain that an open area is the best spot to take shelter in. These things have more than enough access to ranged weapons to pick us off at a distance. Also duck."

Putting action to words, he hurled himself sideways, just as a robot unloaded a clip through the air where he'd been a moment ago. The bullets tracked his path, but luckily at this range accuracy was not a given. He rolled to his feet, flipping two clips into the air from the pile as he did so. As he stood, he spun his weapons, sending the empty clips flying as the new ones spun down from above to snap neatly into place.

"Not without incident," he muttered to himself as he raised the SMGs again. More conversationally, he continued, "Is there anywhere in the mountain area where we can set up a defensible bottleneck?"

"Well since you asked." Azula responded as if it was such a hassle and she was doing him a huge favor. Picking through the pile she found a pair of blades of decent length, one was curved while the other was straight. This would do for now. One of her many skills she had learned over the years was combat with melee weapons...though it would never be as much fun as fire bending.

She gave Kaya a withering look as she passed with her new prizes seeking out the closest metal beast to slay.

"Oh no, they tried, during the Dark Age of technology, but the Iron men wished to become our masters. As such, we destroyed them."

He gestures with his bolt pistol, which, by itself, is powerful enough to breach tank armor. "This is a heavy weapon, at least by human standards. I am the Emperor's champion, my time carrying a Multi-melta or a lascannon is long past. I oppose the enemy with bolter and blade, because that is all I need."

When the bullet is fired, Erhart turns, stepping in after Morgan is struck, covering him with the mass of a ceramite-plated, 8 foot tall body, bolt pistol up and tracking, interfaced with his array of helm-optics. "The battle is joined, then." He raises the black sword with his left hand, the molecular disruption field crackling fitfully over it, like caged lightning, though far less spectacular than the normal eye-burning nimbus.

"Do you live?"

The thing about animals? They always seem to know when something's wrong.

Applejack was currently dealing with a herd of very frightened creatures, trying to herd them as she fought back her own panic. Great. So something was gonna try to get 'em. She'd fight as best she could, but it sure was frightening.

She saw a pile of human weapons out of the corner of her eye, but she wondered what good that would do. Ponies can't really use them without thumbs, can they?

"No, I mean -"

Nima had to pause to dive out of the way. Perhaps if she'd had her bending, she could have created a barrier forceful enough to stop the bullets, but although she knew she could do it with arrows, bullets were something she hadn't tested yet. Anyway, it was a moot point.

"I mean, there's only one mountain, that I know of. But it's tall and flat on top. It's not as easy to see people when they're standing on top -"

She took her stance beside Morgan again, waiting for something to come close enough for her to engage it with her staff.

"- just a thought I had. Battles aren't really my thing."

"I'm fine," Morgan said, shaking himself a little. "This coat is made of an alloy of I don't even know what. Spreads out the impact enough that it just hurts."

Of course, no fool, Morgan elected to remain behind the cover of the rigid armor. He's no less accurate in snapping off shots from back there, after all. "I suppose I should have said explosive weapons. Anything that can take out a mass of them. Alternately, anything that has enough force to reshape terrain. Otherwise I think we're looking at a fighting retreat to a better position."

"Hey Applejack!" Morgan called out, cheerful enough despite the circumstances. "Mind lending a hand?"

He knew perfectly well the pony would never forgive him if he told her to run like hell, which was almost certainly the sensible thing to do in this scenario.

"I suppose we couldn't have been that lucky, to have a natural fortress plopped down for us," he said, still casual as he snapped off bullets. "What is your thing? Maybe we can find a practical use for it in this situation."

"The care and breeding of bison."

Not so practical in this scenario.

"Airbending, but the 'air' part isn't an option right now."

Sadly. It would have helped with their defenses.

"Sex with attractive men."

Also not presently applicable. But -

"So, if we survive this, and you don't have a commitment to someone else, perhaps we could go and search for a natural fortress? You know. Just in case this happens again."

"Ah. Bolter rounds -are- explosive."

He nods his head through, laying down a few rounds from the bolt pistol, which has an initial cough-like sound as it fires, followed by a booming roar once the rocket engine in each bolt is triggered, sending them screaming towards the Robots.

"We should get to the Apothecar.... medbay. We need to secure medical supplies, then more weapons for the less armored among us."

"I've got a hoof," she said warily, wandering over to Morgan and his horde. "What is it?"

"See anything you think you could use?" Morgan asked, not gesturing to the pile of weapons. Since he was busy sniping at the robots. "Either way... how are you feeling? Strong enough to buck?"

"I'm worried that if they're given free reign here, they'll destroy a lot of what's up here. Including anything medicinal, as well as food. Some of what we have here may be our only food available if the Mess Hall is shut down."

Yeah, Morgan could get behind that weapon.

"You bet," Applejack nodded, inspecting the things herself. There was one that kinda looked like a stick....hey! She could carry it in her mouth, maybe, and proceeded to pick it up.

"Just run at things and cut?" she asked, somewhat muffled by the handle of the sword.

Morgan takes a moment to laugh brightly, though it doesn't interrupt the suppressing fire he'd laid down. "Where were you when I'd just woken up on this ship?"

He considered the prospect a moment as he reloaded a weapon with a quick flick and snap of the wrist. "I wouldn't call it a commitment, but there's someone I'm interested in at the moment, and I'm not sure sleeping with another girl would be the best way to pursue that interest," he said with a grin.

"That being said, if I'm sure about one thing, it's that bending teaches you enough martial arts to watch my back. So I'm thinking I'm glad to have that support even if it's not your specialty!"

"Stay close to me, guard my back and I'll guard yours. Your power is in your legs -- uh, your rear legs -- so use the sword to parry what you can't dodge, and try to keep to kicking for an attack."

Morgan was willing to bed not even a robot could withstand a good double gut-punch from Applejack's hooves.

If Kaya had stayed around for Azula's withering look, maybe she would have been tempted to roll her eyes. Once she'd heard Morgans request, she'd grabbed another of the swords and had already lept into the fray, slicking at the robots that Morgan had crippled. She could feel the deliberate weakness in her body (it INFURIATED her) and she was not about to let herself be attacked by robots,

She remembered all too well, back when the Nightmare King had attacked, the fury of the Terminator, like something out of a nightmare. That explained Kaya's angry scream as she cut hard into the enemy.

"Gotcha," Applejack muttered, pounding her hooves on the ground in front of her. "Hold onto your hats. If you've got 'em."

And she was watching with narrowed eyes, ready to charge at the first sign of an attack.

"Both of you. Stop," Morgan said. Again, entirely casually, but that was unmistakably an order. "We're outnumbered. They will flank us. Get on my sides, form a triangle. We back each other up."

Logistically, that WAS the wisest way to fight against superior numbers if they could keep it to melee. He only hoped they would both control themselves enough to fall in.

If not, well.

"We need to retreat to a more defensible position, as well. With as many weapons as possible."

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Hydroponics

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