Gods could be too arrogant. Such was the case of SHODAN, who had turned the Pods into a nightmarish zone where she could freely amuse herself and torture those that had come here.

But arrogance breeds pride which breeds mistakes. Instead of killing everyone off, she had decided to do this more slowly – watch them suffer in a slow agony, and, therefore had not expected them to fight back.

It had been a lucky shot, really, one in a million, But one of the people present that day had accidentally shot a tiny, insignificant object. A tiny little drone, that, once it had been the source of the power damper, had fallen. The tables were turned, and the goddess had been forced to retreat from the pods.

Now she was on a panicked mode, not only because some of the other people on the ship had managed to work their way into her system files, using another AI to send pointless images and sounds to her, distracting her from her task, but they knew how they could defeat her and gain their powers back.

It didn't take long for the message to be sent out, as the word quickly spread. Find the tiny little creatures, and shoot them down. SHODAN couldn't work their shields properly and once they were found, it was only a short matter of time before the powers returned to an area.

It would take time, but, finally, the tide of the battle was turning on the side of the crewmen and women. In vain, she was throwing her all; even more strange robot creatures, attacking in packs, but with hope on their side, they could win this...

[OOC - OKay go for it! NPC players, feel free to NPC as many robots as you like. Players, once your powers return, feel free to make as much scrap metal as you like, no need to have people NPC for you if you just want to write tags of them kicking ass.]

This was it. Endgame. The crux of the battle, the turning point, those crucial moments that would decide if the crew won or lost, that would decide if the Ohm would reign victorious or go running with their chitinous tails between their legs.

Did the crew have enough grit to win? Could they defeat a full Ohm fighting force?

With the flagging confidence of the GIA forces, it'd be up to the crew to turn the tide.

And one of the crew would pay the ultimate price to make sure the others walked away alive.

[ooc: everything is up!]

 After dropping off some of the crew at Balisair, it was time for the crew to set course for Lirath. The situation greeting them wasn't the most promising.

The cracked surface of the moon called Lirath was one of its most unmistakeable features. One of the three moons of the planet Kehoe, it had been terraformed and served as a settlement for a hundreds of different species, some humanoid, some not. Despite occasional class struggles, environmental issues, and speciesism blocking their way, the darker parts of Lirath's past were largely left behind, and an era of peace and tolerance had reigned for quite some time. The only problems they'd had recently were with a terrorist group whose cause for their actions had been a mystery, but they weren't tied to any particular species or social group and had been likened to a cult and had largely gone quiet in recent years.

Now the peace on the moon of Lirath had been shattered by the invasion of the Ohm.

The capital city had been destroyed. Now, all that was left of the peoples of Lirath was evacuating from one of its smaller cities, one known as Smyteval. A desert city, existing in a valley in between a rocky range of canyons and mountains, even though it was in the low ground, the natural channels of rock served as bottlenecks for any Ohm attacking from the ground.

GIA squadrons patrolled in space, locked in explosive warfare, protecting the Bleed-gate that had been activated to see the evacuated ships to the refugee world, and a shield created by massively-powerful shield generators extended around the city and up into the atmosphere, creating a shielded tunnel so ships could escape.

Word had come that there was a vital weapon to be deployed on Lirath, one that needed to be destroyed, hence why the Transmigration 9 had been called in. Given the diverse crew, and the ships that were in its hangar, there was at least someone or something on board that could blow the weapon up if it did show.

There was no sign of it yet. Right now, there was just chaos, streams of evacuees boarding ships, armies of Ohm engaged with GIA soldiers outside the shields, and forcefields that everyone hoped would hold out just a little bit longer.

The crew would be following Leon's orders but finding themselves fighting side-by-side with GIA platoons, full of various species that were currently all getting their asses kicked severely.

[ooc: STAGE 1 is now open! Please do not tage STAGE 2 until it's announced as open as well.]

[ooc: STAGE 2 is now open!]

 After receiving the warning the Tapestry had provided them, along the order to begin preparations from Councillor Kang, the crew had been getting ready for upcoming combat with the Ohm.

Unfortunately, the rather vague nature of the warning they received meant they had no particular way of knowing exactly when this battle would occur. Understandably, this put some of the crew on edge, but at the very least they had some prior warning that they would be facing the Ohm, rather than being thrown blind into such a dangerous situation. Combat drills, vehicle maintenance and armory inspections seemed to be regular sights for the week or so following Kang's message. Not much time to prepare, but the crew worked with what was given to them.

Eventually, however, the call came.

||Alert, Alert,|| Stacy called out throughout the ship, ||Priority One message from GIA High Command. All crew members please report to the Obs Deck. Repeat, Priority One message from GIA High Command, All crew members please report to the Obs Deck...||

Stacy kept repeating the message over and over until the crew began making their way towards the Obs Deck to receive the message.

[ooc: As implied by the post, we're assuming the crew's ICly had a one-to-two week heads-up about the battle. It was supposed to be played out, but RL timing prevented this from working out. Feel free to come up with the details of your character's preparations on your own

Also, as usual, please wait for subthreads to go up before tagging in.

Edit: It's up! Feel free to start tagging in!]

The plan was...well, it wasn't simple, but it sort of was.

While the CLF attacked multiple Clone Processing centers to distract the government, the group with the CLF would target one particular one in the region that'd once been New Jersey. The group with the government would offer their services in putting down their own people.

In the center, they'd split up into several groups. One would fight a fake fight, create a massive diversion, and blow up the room where the samples their DNA were being kept in the process. Another group would secure a teleporter pad. That team would teleport out other teams to steal a ship, steal some med tech to teleport to said ship, and steal a medical database. Another team would go to the main command center and hack into the government mainframe to down the sensornet around the planet so they could escape. And Nightwing himself would accompany the clones to upload the harvested memories to the Mother Brains, left unguarded because of the diversionary fighting, and make sure that was all they did.

Meanwhile, there'd be a standing order for all teams to avoid killing other crewmates, and avoid killing guards unless absolutely necessary.

It was a complicated plan. If a single part fouled up, they might find themselves dead, trapped, or worse. But if it worked, it'd work pretty spectacularly and leave them with medtech, a medical database, the clones helped, and possibly a grateful Council depending on how the fight went, because of the ones seemingly aiding the government.

In some worlds, things that were a million-to-one-chance (exactly a million-to-one) by their nature had to work. Let's hope this world is one of them, eh, mission crew?

[ooc: Only comment to threads if it says they are open here. All threads: OPEN. Characters may get injuries up to and including 7 on the Injury Scale (scroll to the bottom). Any higher, and they must ask permission of the plot-runners, just to make sure everyone isn't immobilized without enough people to help move them.]

(Plot Post!)

The sun was starting to sink towards the horizon as the emergency pod landed down on the surface of Orya, deep in the thicket of a jungle a few miles north of the village.

It was all unknown and uncharted territory... but if Stacy's crew ever wanted to see a good half of their doctors and scientists again, there was no other choice but to stage a rescue mission.


(ooc: SUBTHREADS ARE FIIIINE. Have at!)

After everyone and all of their ships were properly loaded the Quarter had launched successfully. The journey from Stacy to the Trojan Asteroid field trailing NiSaris took several hours, but they managed to approach the field with the people of the nearby world being none the wiser.

The problem was that the NiSarians weren't the only ones watching the skies.

As the Quarter approached and entered the asteroid field, all was quiet. But it was only going to be a matter of moments before that would change.


((ooc: See this post for instructions, but otherwise, have at it, and have fun.))

Trudy had asked Michael how many EX-Gear suits the Skulls had available for use in the X-Wings and VFs, for system interlink as well as ejection safety. While it certainly wasn't an infinite number, it was more than enough to outfit a squadron and a half. He wasn't sure how you'd go about connecting the machinery to the X-Wings that weren't built for it, but hey, that wasn't his job to figure out. He just needed to make sure people were fitted for them, and understood how they worked.

"It's not the most fashionable outfit in the world, but you'll want an EX-Gear for two reasons," he explained to the figure in front of him - having set up a temporary "fitting room" in the hangar bay. "One, it's more efficient at reading your body's movements than a normal flight stick would be, which means precision control and quicker reaction times when you need it most."

"Two, if that doesn't help you, it's got a fully contained zero-G and vacuum survivability system for when you need to eject, plus a propulsion pack to get you back to base. You won't be going at Fold-warp speeds, but it has enough thrust to get you back home."

"Care to strap yourself in and give it a test?"

(ooc: Open to any in Starfighter Command who aren't flying a Mobile Suit. For reference: In the middle, 1, 2)

PT finished at 0700, and the pilots and new recruits got a half hour to cool off before they got into the cockpits of their assorted craft. In the two hours since 0500 they ran several miles, did push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups, and then a hundred jumping jacks to get the blood pumping. "You don't even want to think about how much force you put on your body when you're piloting," Trudy said at the start of the exercises. "Pilots need to be in peak condition to handle it."

Those who were used to doing the training five days out of the week would be out of breath but not exhausted. Anyone new, however, might have a little trouble getting their wind back.

"All right everyone, gather around. We have a few new recruits today, so we're not going to be running the Zokez scenario. I know you're all heartbroken." She kept a straight face, but that was a definite joke. She was sick of running the Zokez scenario. "We'll be doing some standard training exercises - maneuverability and gunning practice."

The track and exercise equipment melted away, and in its place the hangar of the Macross Quarter materialized with all its fighters and mobile suits. "Outside is a standard sim course. I'm going to have the recruits run it first to see how they handle and then the squadrons will go out as a unit. Recruits, let's put you in birds."

((OOC: This log is for anyone who signed up to fly a mobile suit, a VF or an X-wing and is not already in Starfighter Command. The flight sim is like something you'd see out of the training missions on Star Fox - fly through the rings, shoot the enemies, avoid the obstacles it throws at you like sheets of scrap and asteroids. EDIT: Subthreads for the squadrons are now up!))

Asuka could never quite remember how or when she'd gotten into the habit of a daily run. She remembered training with someone on the ship - but their face and name were always just out of reach, on the tip of her tongue. That was frustrating, so she tried not to think on it. Of course, then she'd signed up for Rogue Squadron and they'd had to do that whole boot camp thing and by now, it was just a part of her daily routine. Get up, go out, sims, running. It kept her in shape and it kept her from going stir-crazy. Even the sensoriums got stifling and too fake after a while. 

So she ran. The amount of available clothing had dropped, of course, so she was just in her plant suit - which was freaky as hell, but it was that or run in the nude and that wasn't about to happen. This helped her think, anyway. Just the slap of her feet on the pavement, the relative silence of the city - it was a bit eerie at times, but she preferred being alone like this. 

Occasionally she would summon up memories and faces from home - Misato, Shinji, Wonder Girl. She would wonder if they were in the pods - and then she'd dismiss the idea. They weren't here. It didn't matter. She was fine on her own and she didn't care about them anyway. Today's run was coming to an end, anyway. She turned onto another street, accelerating slightly.

Just a few blocks more.

Those left outside the city would find their experience to be far less exciting, but at least it was still relaxing for the most part.

The accommodations they were given were relatively spartan but well maintained, and the locals seemed nice enough. The food was good, and they were treated fairly well despite refusing to undergo the rituals.

But strangely, by the time night started rolling around, the locals began hurrying to finish up whatever they were doing, cutting conversations short and rushing back inside. By the time the sun fell, none of the locals were outside.

...Well. That certainly wasn't ominous.

[ooc: secondary plot is go! try to keep everything in one thread for now]

The best way to describe Kai's state of mind right now was stir-crazy. Even on a ship as mind-bendingly huge as Stacy was, Kai knew there was only so much space. He knew there was only so far he could go in one direction. He knew there was no going back, and there was no one he knew in this place.

Kai had accepted that there was nothing he could do at the moment but wait.

That didn't mean he had to like it.

Kai needed a distraction. He needed some way to get his blood pounding, something to get his mind off where he was and just how little he could do. He'd tried to find that soul-thing he'd overheard people talking about, but of course this was how his luck would run: the one man on the ship looking for the darksoul wouldn't find it.

That was why he was wandering around now, shoulders hunched, head down. Anyone who looked strong enough to take him on would have a fight picked with them, whether they wanted to fight or not. Anyone else unfortunate enough to cross his path? They'd be dealing with a very terse, very irritated man with metal under his skin.

[ooc: Newbie Helpers List | Instructions: Post your character with one post establishing them as being podpopped. Tag each other in groups of 2's, 3's, and 4's, to get some interaction to start with. If a thread doesn't already have 2 or 3 people tagged in, tag it with your character's podpop popping near the other people, rather than making a new subthread. If you would like to play out them talking to the AI, please send an email to the mods making the request--we do this only by request. Then move onto the big Newbie Meeting. Once your character has gotten the rundown from the old crew, you may start posting entrance posts and freely tagging.]


||Pod Release Protocols Initating|| Stacy's familiar voice sounds out to all the podmates through the ship.

In the Pod Caverns, there are the sounds of: Pop. Pop pop pop. Poppuhpoppoppop. KASCHUNKhiiiiiiiissssss.

There is condensation and mist spraying out from cracks in the pods, as the people inside slide out onto the floors, covered in slime.

--

( There was nothing... )