<> <> <> <> <> * Amadeus is looking up towards the sky (like that will help much) and mostly trying desperately to keep calm. * Zeke is connected to his pad, standing there as impassively as ever, spiky holo-hair and all. He states, out of nowhere, "It is... interesting that we, the... loners and outsiders, get to make the decision of fight or acceptance for all of humanity." Fight or acceptance? Strange choice of words. * Kyle takes a deep breath. "Loners? Really?" * Zeke gestures with his third hand at the crowd. "Chainjumpers. They are not... average humans." (Neither are you.) (Well, duh, but Zeke was referring to chainjumpers in general!) Yeah, but doesn't that always happen? Or somethin'? The people who change things do so because they are different. And even if they aren't, they are different because they have the choice. * Zeke is silent a moment, then says, "I would not say that is true for... us." * Amadeus mutters, quietly enough so the other groups of chainjumpers shouldn't/won't hear, "To be fair, you're not human." ( YET :D :D :D) ( OH MY GOD.) * Zeke half-smiles on the holoface, then replies, "Does that make it less interesting?" ( GIVE US A KISS, AMADEUS) No. But you'd never let me actually have a look at you, so six of one, half a dozen of the other. * Zeke frowns a touch, then replies, "That has two meanings. One of them is obviously irrelevant at this point in time." * Amadeus doesn't roll his eyes, somehow. "Obviously." Perhaps when we return to Mars. (It's a date. :D) (Damn. No smooth lines needed or anything.) ( You bring the wine, I'll bring the laser scalpel.) (Yup!) * Kyle takes a drink. "This'll be awesome." (Todd's on his way home, he should be here shortly. When he is we'll get moving for real.) * Tomas disengages from another group and has a seat with the scooby gang, "People are really nervous." That seems likely. Uncertainty. * Hestia hipsways over from wherever she was discussing things and looks predictably neutral. "I was pretty adamant that I didn't want to get involved in saving the world, a few jumps back," she says blithely. "Where did I go wrong..." * Lexi shrugs. "The world decided for you." More like the killer robots from outer space. <> (bueno) (I don't think so.) (Nope) I was thinking that was a good movie, but it's real life. (Yup!) (Let's do this.) * Lexi shrugs. "Alright. So you guys ready to wreck some chickens?" <> "Don Fernando does not believe in being scared. He is anxious, yes. Anxious to crush the metal devils who were foolish enough to mess with us! We will recycle them in the fires of our rage! They will be trounced thoroughly, and then they will know what it has meant to mess with Don Fernando, no?" <> * Amadeus shakes his head. Mostly because Don Fernando speaks in third person most third personly. I am surprised he is not more of a loner. His speech patterns are possibly more awkward than my own. (We're within com range of Fernando?) (Yes.) They are. He's an example of someone trying to make up for not having a personality by being loud and obnoxious. * Lexi opens coms to Fernando. ~Ah Donny Donny... Speaches can't kill killer robots. Especially not yours. We have something that might, though...~ She smirks. * Hestia glances at Zeke. "You at least have the good sense just to deadpan." <> ~Someone had to say something. Have you no sense of drama, woman?~ * Lexi shakes her head. ~I have plenty sense of drama. Just not daytime drama. Anyway... Good to see you haven't changed. Would you like some help?~ ~We will be fine, thank you!~<> * Lexi prepares to lift off! * Hestia looks up at the ceiling, drumming her fingers on the arm of her chair. "And what comes after this, I wonder. Maybe we'll be like the Europa Team, get our own religion." (Sorry... wedding nerves combined with double playing equals me being pretty loopy) * Amadeus snorts. "I hope not." * Hestia grins at Amadeus. "You sure? Amadeus Aescepilus, god of problematic biology?" <> That is... a strange thing to have happen. If people would take my dissertation seriously, I'm pretty sure I'll have enough of a following concerning that anyway. (Aaaahahahahaha.) * Amadeus frowns a little at the sound. Not angry or upset, really, just thoughtful. Don't feel bad. I don't think it's you, personally. Nobody takes dissertations seriously. (I AM NOT) (SPEAKING FROM EXPERIENCE) (OR ANYTHING) ("It was about WHAT?") * Kyle chuckles. "That'd be awesome. Totally awesome." * Amadeus shrugs a little, frown still on his face. "They should - it's groundbreaking stuff. People just have a difficult time believing it." Believin' what Prof? Why the Borenstein gene activated when it did. It's essentially Lamarckian, working differently from standard evolutionary mutation... I wrote a book on the subject. * Hestia is zoning out a little bit, because she is not an academic, but suddenly frowns and reaches for a datapad, snapping it up and tapping at it furiously. * Amadeus blinks at the sudden motion. "Tia?" Something I read... no, something Bugsy over there and I *heard*... * Amadeus looks at Zeke, then Tia again. "What?" ("The eye of god blinks, and the path to the sky will open up.") * Hestia seems to find what she's looking for. "'Those with eyes to see are blind, but those who hear the Tone's variations are gifted -- they will see the flow before the closing.'" The Walphin prophecy. It talked about a 'great ending' on a galactic scale. A 'closing of doors'. * Zeke looks over at Hestia and nods slightly. But doesn't this sort of describe the situation we're in? The duektibots can't hear the Tone, and they've started 'closing doors' across what we know the of the galaxy with the nullspace interdictors... And we just started to hear a variation in the Tone. The problem is that this prophecy and the Sleythin version both end in disaster on a galactic scale. * Amadeus thinks about that for a moment, then says, "Disaster or an end, Tia?" * Zeke is silent a moment, then says, "If one assumes a longer time scale, one could consider the extinction war a great ending. But these prophecies lack significant basis." It's... it's... hngh. They said something would know a sign. * Hestia plays a part of the prophecy back, but it's in Walphin and clearly not translatable to Sleythin or Marsal. That. Whatever that is, would know the sign. * Lexi shrugs. "Well I'm not seeing any sign. All I see is a bunch of angry metal chickens." * Hestia sighs and sits back in her chair. "'A forgotten process, charging the potentialities between worlds', they said. Ugh... I don't like spiritual nonsense. It's always so bloody vague." <> That's 'cuz you can make it mean whatever happens. * Zeke says, simply, "I do not trust prophecy. I trust my hive. I will man my station." * Zeke heads to battle stations. Wooooo! ( And y'all are my hive! *Station break* We'll return you to "ATC3: Friendship is Magic" after these messages.) I'm pretty sure he just called us his 'hive', so once I scrub that feeling off in the shower I'm going to shove him out an airlock. (He's used that language before!) (Hestia may have even made the same comment.) * Lexi rolls her eyes and keeps-a-flying. "Can we concentrate our homocidal tendancies on the things trying to destroy our planet?" * Amadeus murmurs, "Charging the potentialities." His eyes flick rapidly as he uses his headputer. "A Lamarckian process, perhaps..." <> Hey, I bet it was just a slip of the tongue. Or something. (LICK THE BUTTON, TOMAS) Hm? No. Not with Zeke. (THE UNIVERSE DEPENDS ON IT) * Kyle lifts his fist and hammers on it on the BIG RED BUTTON. * Amadeus keeps flicking his eyes anyway and buckles himself in. If there are seatbelts on this thing. (Why do we have a big red button? WHY NOT?!) (history: erased.) (HA YES I WAS JUST THINKING THAT) (HAHA, YES!) (Big, red CANDY-LIKE button.) <> <> * Hestia grimaces, putting her hand against her face; her fingers splay out enough that her green eyes are visible between her fingers, but little else, which explains why what she says is slightly muffled. "It... echoed." Woah. (I know kung-fu) (go to hell keanu) * Tomas stirs from the floor, "Was--was that supposed to happen?" <> I don't think so? But it was wicked. * Zeke snaps upright in his chair, his birdsect making an annoyed digital noise. "Unforseen... side effect." * Amadeus blinks. Then blinks again. "That was *amazing*." * Lexi shakes her head. "That was seriously trippy. No wonder I passed out when I interacted with that thing." Ugh, how did a sound waveform rebound in a VACUUM? <> * Hestia answers it, because she can do that. (On the big screen, obv.) It's science. It ain't gotta explain shit. * Kyle dials main screen on. You know, you say a lot of things that are actually entirely untrue, like... often. Did you know that? <> "Hey, uh, brah, we ... we got a problem." <> "AAAAAH! I dunno what happened, brah! We were off or something, they weren't right there when we jumped in!" * Amadeus looks at Kyle like he's insane, opens his mouth to say something to that effect, and then there's chainjumpers. ...how much time do we have? <> "Tactical comp says no more than ten minutes, broseph." * Zeke frowns. "To impact, or to safe interrupt distance?" "Impact." Well fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. * Amadeus puts his head in his hands. "What the hell do we DO, brah?" * Zeke nods slightly, then says, "Disable the remaining Duekti ship." Do SOMETHING. Can we intercept the warheads? <> "We can get close to the ship, yeah." <> If we could hack the missile guidance or targeting system somehow... * Lexi shakes her head. "How? Tell me where to fly and I'll do it, but I can't do much more than that." <> (Wait, wait, chainjump to the WARHEADS?) (Aren't they close to being in atmosphere?) (Getting there!) (They have ten minutes.) (I didn't say it wouldn't be dangerous.) (The things were probably dropped, not fired.) * Zeke says, mostly to Hestia, "Can you not get close enough to use the direct control methodology you used on the Duekti planet?" Not without physically touching them. * Hestia grimaces. "Or a computer in their network, anyway. Damn!" * Zeke looks back at Hestia. "Such as the still active Duekti ship?" * Hestia gives that as much thought as the moment allows. "...possible." Better than nothing. * Zeke nods. "Insertion on to the Duekti ship, while the Fate Breaker pursues a direct intercept." Either way, we gotta get closer. Hey Lexi, can you get us near them? Acceptable? (Lucky thing you have a lander.) (Indeed.) * Hestia smirks. "Yes, I'm going to enjoy being stuck on a ship full of hostile Duekti if this doesn't work." She starts jogging toward the hangar bay. (Lander startup sequence starting just about now, BTW, so it's hopefully pre-flight ready when we get there, or close to) * Zeke stands and says, "I was intending on traveling with you." Don't have time to argue. Come if you're coming. We are unlikely to need multiple gunners or-- * Zeke stops justifying and continues walking. <> * Lexi nods and flies closer to the ship at top speed! * Amadeus goes with Tia, because he's zero good on the Fate Breaker. Hopefully he'll at least be +1 good with her. (YOU DON't HAVE STEALTHHHH) (wait neither do i nevermind) (Dude I have like, 45+ unspent CP) (I was going to say, I'm probably more stealthy than robot-bug over here.) (I have as much of any attribute I need at this point) (Haha, I have 31 unspent!) * Lexi flips the switches to activate the mole drive and chain jump to the other side of the planet. "Hold on!" * Kyle is sticking with Lexi and Thomas on the ship. "Let's do this." <> * Tomas grabs onto something and nods to Kyle. ~Good luck! Give 'em hell! Or something!~ <> * Lexi in the meantime takes evasive action to avoid being blown to pieces! <> * Kyle starts tracking the warheads, trying to get beads on where they're going and which ones, if any, they could eliminate before they hit populated areas. "Space Jesus. Thomas, you at a gunning station?" (Maaaan.... Missiles with Missiles? No one told me that the Duekti were from the Macross universe.) How good are you with nuclear weapons, Kyle? (If you're gonna be slow-firing missiles, it makes sense to give them their own defenses, heh.) I, uh, I know the basics. I've never MESSED with a nuke before. Think you could teach a guy to disarm one in uh 45 seconds? Given I don't even know their triggering mechanism, NO. * Lexi continues to fly the ship and closes her eyes for a moment to concentrate on stopping the missiles with her telekinesis. * Kyle gets up. "If we detonate one of them early, it might... do something." Fine. I guess you'll have to come with for the first one to show me how. We'll split after that. Suit up. <> * Kyle syncs his suit up with the ship's sensors and gets up. What, going into a warfield WITHOUT a space suit on? That's just a bad idea. "Good luck Lexi. Ship's tracking the warheads as best it can, but they've got some nasty jamming." * Kyle taps his hand on her shoulder. <> * Lexi holds them as long as she can. * Tomas gives a curt nod, "Time's wasting. Pull as close as you can, Lex, and we'll see what we can do." (We actually have an airlock right?) * Kyle walks to the airlock. (We'd better.) (Yup.) <> (SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE) * Tomas checks his suit while waiting on the airlock to engage, then points, "We'll head for that one first, I think." (Or that.) * Lexi coms to the other team ~I'm buying you as much time as I can. I have the missiles held. But hurry.~ * Kyle checks his 3-D map and points to a nearby warhead. "That one. Come on." He jumps to the nearest missile. ~Workin' as fast as we can.~ * Tomas nods and pushes the lever on his maneuvering belt to RABBIT. <> * Tomas engages his magnetic boots and begins searching for a panel or seam. * Kyle plants his feet and starts looking as well. <> * Kyle points at the plate. Tomas has muscle, right? * Tomas snorts at the Duekti before kneeling down and working the plate free. <> * Kyle runs over and starts trying to make sense of the electronics. If Tomas is listening in on Kyle's comms, it's basically just a shitton of technobable he's muttering to himself. * Tomas begins digging through the wiring too, poking and prodding, ~I think this is the altitude detonator. The pressure sensor is going to be similar no mattter where it came from.~ ~How do we detach it without blowing the whole thing?~ ~You're assuming they use similar technological means to us. But... that looks kinda right?~ ~If you're launching nukes at a planet, you're going to want to use an altitude detonator. What do you make of disabling it?~ ~Give me a sec, give me a sec. A bypass probably would be functional. Or disabling the altitude trigger.~ He opens his kit and pulls out a number of gadgets, reading the resistance over the wires coming to and from the altimeter and, once figuring the proper resistance, setting up a bypass of the appropriate resistance allow the clean removal of the detonator. <> * Tomas watches the process closely, ~Do you have a spare set of gadgets or will snipping the red wire be sufficient?~ ~Do it wrong and you'll detonate it immediately or on landing. I'd be shocked if they don't have these rigged to arm-on-impact if the resistance isn't accounted for in the altimeter.~ * Kyle shrugs. ~I don't normally carry more than one set of tools, don't you have any?~ * Tomas frowns slightly, ~I have a knifeset, but I don't think that will help. I guess we stay together. Let's move. We don't have much time.~ * Kyle jumps to the next missile without waiting for a response. * Tomas jumped first! <> ~Hey Lexi, what's going on over there?~ * Lexi checks all her instruments and scanners or whatever she can check to find out. Also comms the other team ~Hey. You guys doing something? We just got a whole lot of weirdness over here with these missiles.~ * Kyle doesn't seem distracted by the crosstalk as he goes to work disarming the missile they're on. * Tomas lands heavily on the next missile and heads directly for the hatch. <> ~It's probably Tia's work. She says two aren't disarmed.~ * Zeke comms back, ~Hestia theorizes that physical disarming will be necessary on those.~ ~Alright, we're working on it.~ * Kyle motions to blow the hatch off with TK if he has to. <> * Tomas digs again to find the detonator. <> * Kyle searches for a detonator too! * Kyle furrows his eyebrows. He re-checks the resistances and everything before proceeding to disarm. <> <> (If only our ship had an ARM to GRAB them.) (MELFINA) (WHERE IS THE LEYLINE) (This is not Outlaw Star Grappler ships are THE STUPIDEST SHIT EVER!) (STUPID AWESOME) * Kyle thumbs-up to Tomas. ~Missiles disarmed. Can you hold'em there for a little longer Lexi?~ * Hestia is heard over the all-ships band: "You can blow that last bloody ship up any time now!" * Tomas stands and scans the field. <> * Lexi nods and keeps concentrating with one part of her head. ~Sure. They-WHOA!~ * Hestia flies the lander away from it at exactly the right vector to make a GREAT poster for the movie about this. ~ Please tell me you got the other two somehow. If we did all that for nothing I'm going to be really upset! ~ * Kyle watches the lightshow. ~Holy shit.~ And takes some awesome pictures. * Kyle jumps from the missile to the Fate Breaker. ~Okay, we should probably guide these last two down so we can disarm them. They're not set to detonate, but... they're still *nukes*.~ (... why not just set them to spinning so they burn up too?) <> ~Someone get someone in-charge on the line. We're probably gonna have to land these in some water and blow'em up. I *bet* they self-repair like the deukti tech we saw earlier.~ ~ Maybe we can just... course-correct them into something nobody will miss, like Twilight City. ~ ~Tia...~ <> * Amadeus survived, hooray! He looks just a little worse for wear. <> (awwww yeah) (Oooh baby.) (Push the other big red button. The one that lowers the disco ball and puts the Al Greene on.) * Hestia answers it, which is probably a bad idea, because she is stressed and says: "_What now_?!" <> "... well. You sure seem cheerful, for having broken a planetary siege." * Lexi shakes her head. "T's always like that. You get used to it." * Zeke speaks up to say, "Hello, Noelle. Two of the missiles seem to still be likely to hit, but disarmed. An effort to make sure they land safely is warranted." <> We've had kind of a long day. * Amadeus walks in, removing his helmet. "An *extremely* long day." * Kyle walks in to the conversation. "We need a place to drop off and detonate a couple nukes. Have any large bodies of water nobody'll miss handy?" <> "We can put them in the Atlantic. Not ideal, but it beats dropping them off on land and trying to disarm them. I've launched a couple ships to claim them." * Zeke is silent a moment, then nods. * Kyle sighs and takes a seat in his chair, then relaxes. I believe that will be sufficient. Cool. * Amadeus nods. <> "It's hard to believe it, but you did it. You're going to have to explain to me how, but that can wait. Right now, I think everyone deserves a little R&R. We'll come up with something. Maybe a couple weeks on Earth for all the chainjumpers?" <> "You've earned SOMEthing, after all this." * Hestia manages, through supreme will, not to suggest dropping the nukes on Twilight City after all, as compensation. * Amadeus just pushes his glasses up and rubs his eyes. He doesn't seem sure what to say. (...people outside shouting "HE'S GAY!" is not helping my nerves any.) * Zeke is silent a moment, then says, "I am... sure you will think of SOMEthing, Directrix Antima. This is a... very significant day." * Lexi nods and smiles. "Oh! Earth! I love Earth! That sounds fun. I could use some relaxing. Maybe I could call Vicky, Megumi and Agnes!" * Kyle grins. "Friends of yours?" "Very significant barely begins to cover it, Mr. Chezik. We can talk about it later. For now, come on home, Fate Breaker." <> * Lexi nods to Kyle. "Yeah. I haven't seen them in a while." Haven't seen much of anything in a while. I could use the downtime. And then... <> * Amadeus trails off, his eyes flickering, obviously making notes in the headputer concerning things to research and look into so long as he's taking a break from chainjumping. * Kyle sighs and leans back. "Wonder what I'm gonna do now..." * Lexi sighs and starts to fly the Fatebreaker towards earth. "You know... I'm kinda glad that I screwed up so bad that dad made me take up chainjumping. This is a way better high than I ever got while on ANY drug." She nods and leans back in the chair. "We should do it again sometime!" * Zeke is silent for a moment, then says, "I will... need to return to the planet. I have new... children to bring into the hive." * Hestia flops onto a couch and spreads her arms wide across the back of it, looking... well, relaxed for once. "Well, we just searched the far corners of the universe, discovered uncharted regions of space, and saved all of humanity from a rampaging robotic menace." There's a beat, before she shrugs. "Red Disneyworld's probably open tomorrow." * Tomas raises a sudden eyebrow at Zeke from behind the magazine he is reading, but returns to it without comment. * Zeke smiles faintly with a glance at Hestia, then looks over at Lexi. "There is always more to be discovered, Lexi." * Amadeus breaks off from his note taking to look at Tia. "You want to go to Disneyworld?" * Hestia says, deadpan, "It's the happiest place on Mars, Professor." (I think we should end with that. That looks good.) (Agreed.) <>