Foo 09 maybe...
===================
Stray cat returning
(by HRogge, who listened to “The Cog is Dead: The copper war” during the writing)
The first reports about Boskone ground troops were incoming and the a lot of the ship AIs were either taking of to participate in the fight, fleeing through one of the many airlocks or worrying if the Fen of their crew would return before the Boskones arrived. Some armed Fen had began to camp in the parking area to keep the bad guys away from the cars, but there were just to many doors into the area to guard them all at the moment.
Cortana were just talking with Cathy to hear when she finally would arrive. “I will be there as soon as we can deal with a troop of reavers on the other side of the door... And I will bring a few friends from the Senshi with me... will become a little bit tight, but we might play battletaxi if possible” Cathy just said when a small door directly left to the Stargazer bursted into pieces and a Boskone Reaver in normal armor appeared, loudly crying and waving a hand coilgun.
He grabbed the short weapon with his second hand and fired a long burst of bullets into the side of the spacecraft... or more specific into the forcefield of the Stargazer. The field blinked and shrieked, ricochets were buzzing in random directions, but the field held.
The surprised Reaver looked at the now nearly invisible wall in front of him, then to his gun and emptied the rest of his magazine into the field... it sparked and screamed, but the small caliber hand weapon was still unable to get through.
“Damned bastard... that could have hurt” Cortana cried and the Stargazer smashed sidewards toward the attacker, shoving him back through the open door.
“Guys, could someone with a weapon could come over here? This forcefield will not hold them off forever” Cortana shouted to some of the Fen close to the Stargazer... luckily a few moments later a hand grenade rolled over the shield of her ship and in front of the Reavers feets...
Moments later the bubblegum solved the problem of this Reaper for the near future.
---------------------------
Cathy had a different kind of problem. She was trapped in a larger room of the convention space together with four other Senshis and a another group of Fen when a larger groups of Reavers arrived at the door. Someone had managed to close the door and it had been barred with two waved steel poles, but it became sure that the Boskonians would break through in a few minutes.
The bad news for the group was that there was no other exit of the hall... and Cathys gyrojet pistol were still roughly 100 meters away on the other side of the closed door.
The bad news for the Reavers was that the hall had been used by a number of Sparks for rest... and they were willing to share some Handwavium and tools.
Cathy had already acquired some useful parts like a small metal canister, a few pipes and a oil lamp and was now looking at a cola machine in a corner of the hall, together with another Fen.
“You get the automaton, I get the cola cans” she suggested and they both began to dismantle the thing. She already could hear the other Fen hum something about a ‘magnificent clank’.
---------------------------
Cortana was worrying a lot ‘about her cat’ when Cathy and the four Senshi finally arrived through one of the larger doors. The hangar area had been secured by a contingent of mechas from the Cyber Confederation, but there was still fighting in some of the adjacent areas.
“Cathy, finally! Hmm... what the hell is this thing on your back?”
Cathy looked around to the backpack with the lamp heated canister, the thick pipe strapped to her right arm connected to it and the small steam cloud above it.
“Oh that... we were a little bit stressed by some Boskones and I had to improvise a weapon... I could borrow some Handwavium and tools from a few Steampunk Fen and built this steam powered can launcher... you would not believe how stick waved Cola can be... even if the can don’t smash through your armor! But you should have been there to see the two war clanks that the Sparks built... I think the Reavers were really sorry about breaking through the door in the end.”
She grinned happily and shut down the fire in the boiler... a last steam-only shot later she put down the backpack and put the launcher into the cargo area of the Stargazer.
“Lets go friends” she announced to the Senshis, which were already climbing into the car, “and lets see where we can help out a little bit...”
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Just a brief bit during the groundpounding.
Myk ran down the corridor, his red hawaiian shirttails flapping behind him, his arms pumping, the strange incongruity of a wireless Rock Band guitar in one hand. His goal was to get to Starbug 1, and get as many people into it as possible in case they had to evacuate post-haste.
He rounded the corner, and came to a stop, practically face to face with a half dozen people who he was sure were not from around here. They were armed with machine guns, knives, and looked like they were wearing some sort of flak jackets.
They appeared to be caught slightly more flat footed than he was. Myk still wasn't sure why he'd grabbed the 'waved Rock Band controller, but at the moment, it was his only weapon. He swung it up, grabbed the neck by both hands, and with a primal roar, brought it straight down on the head of the lead Reaver.
The Reaver's head split open like a melon, spreading red everywhere on the walls on either side, on the floor, on the Reaver's companions, and on Myk.
As the body fell down, the remaining five people looked at the carnage. A small part of Myk's mind remarked at how that must be what Chuck Berry Red looked like, on the floor, on the man's head.
On the body of the remarkably undamaged Rock Band controller.
He couldn't remember if it was supposed to be a Telecaster or a Stratocaster, but he did remember that it had actually been easy.
The five Reavers were still caught flat by the gruesome and sudden death of their companion. Myk managed to get back into something like trim faster, but it had a manic edge to it, as he brought the guitar high above his head again. His grin threatened to split his face, not a grin one should see on a man's face, but he knew it was him or them, and the part of his mind that was horrified by the prospect had retreated away from what he had just done.
"KICK OUT THE JAMS, BROTHERS AND SISTERS!" he screamed, at the edge of his voice, and he brought down the guitar again.
--
"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor
Foo 7 or later...
Some days you loose... and some days you don't win.
On board of his command ship in orbit the Boskonian 'Admiral' was looking down on Ganymede.
The plan had been really good, and the battle should have become a massacre... it HAD become a massacre, unfortunately someone had forgot to tell the Fen that this time they were supposed to be on the receiving end of the stick.
"Sorry Admiral, we have already fired all the reserve missiles... unless you want to go deeper and attack the Fen with the coil guns, we are out of the fight" someone replied to his last question.
The Admiral looked again out of the window, down to the flaming wreck that had once been one of the largest transporters in their whole fleet. Now it was a expanding cloud of vapor slowly falling down towards the surface, together with the three Mammoth tanks inside. On his screens he could already see the first Fen crafts raising into the sky, looking for a prey to shoot down.
"Signal the remaining transports to get into a higher orbit and prepare to make a run for the belt" he ordered resignating.
"But... but our troops... our men... they are still fighting... they can still win!" someone on the bridge objected.
"There is nothing we can do for them anymore, without the large freighter we cannot even get them home! If they still manage to win this we can organize a second transport fleet, but we lack the firepower to combat that many Fen crafts at close range." The Admiral closed his eyes for a moment and shook his head. "And we cannot afford to loose even more spacecraft... we must cut our losses and hope we will shake off the Fen in the belt."
This day had began with an attack for the final victory... with a grab for continued space superiority by their alliance. But now it looked like the worst catastrophe that had ever happened for them.
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Shouldn't it be the second wave of Fen ships? A.C. was on the surface when the alert went out, and thus came up with the Stallion and the other mil-spec Fen ships when they scrambled.
Cobalt Greywalker Wrote:Shouldn't it be the second wave of Fen ships? A.C. was on the surface when the alert went out, and thus came up with the Stallion and the other mil-spec Fen ships when they scrambled. What do you think about
"On his screens he could already see the more and more Fen crafts raising into the sky, looking for a prey to shoot down."
this would keep the story fragment more flexible to move around.
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The Supers on site were being pressed as the Boskonians were trying to focus fire on civilians and any Fen craft still docked. Coordination efforts had "street level capes" working non-combatant evacuation while "armor jockeys" ran interference. Unfortunately, the weapons they were up against were a little heavier than usual and armor that had shrugged off skirmishes and small attacks were being sorely tried by large-caliber rifles.
--Supers snippetty-things, foo number indeterminate --
Mister Bessemer's football-themed armor was trailing coolant vapor and one of his rivet guns was offline as he tailed a Boskonian craft based on a small Toyota pickup that seemed to have an anti-aircraft gun mounted in the bed. From radio reports, it had already taken several FEZigs and a squad of Iron Man copies out of action. One of his own rivets had taken out one of the three-man crew in the bed, reducing the rate at which the thing could reload.
Meanwhile, on the ground, Sue Richardson was beginning to worry. The force field generator clipped to her belt was beginning to overheat. It was already working overtime to provide cover for herself and the seven fenkinder under her care. The bubble had shifted from its normal purple down the spectrum to orange as the incoming fire was overtaxing it. Another burst shifted it into an angry red.
Sue swallowed dryly and prepared to meet her maker when a red-and-blue streak passed between her group and the raiders. The look on their faces was comical as they realized they'd been disarmed.
"Looking for these, boys?" a slightly-accented voice asked. A blonde wearing a Supergirl costume stepped forward, assault rifle in her hands. Sue boggled as the woman twisted it into a pretzel. "I'm thinking that your fight's over."
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''
-- James Nicoll
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Further motivation for the Boskonians to get the hell out of Dodge could be provided by the arrival of the Tough Love and the Heavy Metal along with the entire compliment of the Jaunty Jalopies Squadron not currently on patrol.
The Heavy Metal will be carrying LRMs specially designed for capitol ships - big payload, armor piercing, and a fire-and-forget tracking system that makes it impossible to shake. The only problem is they're a bit slow, even for missiles.
The Tough Love will have a bomb bay module devoted to drop tubes. Another bomb bay will be loaded with a drop-package carrying additional OGJ-standardized armor, arms, and tools for OGJ forces. The remaining two will carry anti-fighter LRMs and permit the Tough Love to be a mobile kill-box.
Once Sailor Atalante's team is dirtside, they'll start by refortifying safe zones for the people unable to evacuate, and then later they'll conduct sweeps for straggling reavers.
Sound cool?
blackaeronaut Wrote:Sound cool?
Lets summarize it: "Its a bad day for being the bad guys... a very bad one." *G*
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HRogge Wrote:Lets summarize it: "Its a bad day for being the bad guys... a very bad one." *G* There's a reason this is listed in the FenWiki as the most ironic battle of the Boskone War, at least for the Jossies...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
robkelk Wrote:There's a reason this is listed in the FenWiki as the most ironic battle of the Boskone War, at least for the Jossies... The Boskones planned this attack to be the one that would end the war... they got it. 
**bumping the thread because we talked about it in the "advance now to 2022" thread*
Maybe we can clean this up to have at least some story about Serenity Con? And use it for some timeline data?
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I don't have the text field length for proper writing, but I can summarize.
@Dartz - ATC aboard Gnarlycurl at this point would be Micheal LeChevalier, and Shuko would be helping patch up your team's metal while Myrtle & Herschel covered squishie first aid.
Wave Convoy was actually attending as Autobot Kamen, following up on the joke last 'con, and handing out stick cane sized 'waved roses to anyone in Senshi garb, from a bushel of them stashed in his cab under the cape. When the attack comes in, they
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows
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they prove disturbingly effective as throwing darts, even against the body armor of the Boskone ground troops, but he finds a breached pressure hull before reaching a vehicle lock, improvises a lifepod with his top hat, a loose panel, and a bubblegum grenade's payload for a trapped kid to get back to atmo, and then heads outside to deal with enemies his own size. Basically the same as Engle Gruppe but with less dramatic tension since he's in less physical danger. A few more ballistic roses to the pilots of
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows
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straggler troop landers and their air cover, somwhat less effective since 'waved glass is pretty tough. Knife hand strikes or even slinging them into each other with his hip grapple lines is much more effective.
The exUSSR suitcase bomb either got placed on Gnarlycurl unnoticed by covert agents a day or two later in the confusion of the aftermath, with a time delay to let them get away that meant the ship was well on the way back to the inner system for refit as a med ship before it went off.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows
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Dredged up from the Pit. Jet gets a Zig medal for this.... unless something else is needed.
Quote:The wheels of the truck made contact with the floor in Gnarlycurl's landing bay. The tension in her passenger's body seemed to drain to the floor. Her militia uniform seemed ready to follow.
Ford wordlessly switched the truck back over to its usual wheeled motion, engaged a gear and drove across the bay through the open inner doors. Passing a line of other vehicles parked up and offloading, she turned around a shot-up Peterbuilt before finding an empty space among the mass of people. The tyres chirped as she stomped on the brake, stopping the truck with a shudder. A turn of the key shut the engine down a moment and she rapped her knuckles on the divider between cab and cargo bay.
"Everybody out!"
Adrenaline buzzed through her veins, her body spasming as she tried to move from her seat. A very confused looking Tachikoma whirred past, not quite sure what it was supposed to be doing.
Some of the wounded were already being loaded out of the back by a Julien Freiz and Herschel Rosenberg. She tried hard not to look at them. Focus on the truck. A stray round had shot out one of the headlights, then punched a fist-sized hole in the front fender.
There were scratches and pock-marks all along the paint from debris.
She forced herself not to think about Jet, even though she knew Jet would've been up right as the attack began. There were more important things to worry about.
"Hey you!" she yelled at someone who looked like they belonged. "Get me some diesel fuel, I'm running out."
Yell at anyone hard enough, all they'll do what you tell them. It helped vent the stress and the frustration. It helped her ignore the smell coming out the back of the pickup truck.
It was hosed down while someone refilled the tank.
Ford popped the bonnet and focused her mind on checking over the engine. It was still steaming hot. The smell of burnt flesh tickled her nostrils as she singed her fingers on a hot manifold. The washer bottle had been smashed when the bullet when through, then boiled in vacuum
Could be worse. For something bought second hand off a redneck who was trading up to a Blackbird, it was holding together pretty well. She slammed the bonnet down and offered a silent prayer to whatever god would listen that everyone she cared about would be alive tomorrow.
Her prayer was answered a heartbeat later.
Jet, coated in brown muck and black carbon, following another cyber being wheeled through on a gurney.
"Hey! Hey Jet!"
She waved. The cyber stopped dead, eyes scanning around. Ford swore Jet thought she saw a ghost when she spotter her.... her eyes widened into a pair.
"Over here!" Ford grinned at her.
Jet stumbled in obvious disbelief, limping on one leg. For a moment, Ford thought she'd been taking on troopships by just ramming them, but that just seemed to insane to be possible.
They both stopped, separated from each other by inches. Jet reeked of blood and burning metal, her face and body streaked with grime and blood. Ford couldn't tell where any of it had come from.
Both regarded each other silently for a moment, unwilling to do anything rash that might cause the other to dissapear in a puff of wishful fantasy.
"You look like hell," the both said in unison.
Ford had to wonder how bad she really looked. She slowed moved her gloved hand towards Jet's face, just to touch and see if she was real.
"That's everything. It's ready to go,"
Both of them started, stepping a back from each other to look at the gearhead beaming a grin at them both.
Jet looked at her, stunned for a moment. "You're going back out?"
Ford sighed, throwing her a wan smile.."So long as my truck's still moving, I got to go. I've made three runs already."
And that sounded almost like she was bragging about it.
Jet seemed about ready to object in the most vehement manner possible, but she thought better. She tried to start with something else, then finally came up third time lucky.
"Fuckit, Ford." she grinned with her face a mask of stone determination. "Let's do it right then. Get as many trucks, vans and jeeps together as you can. We all go together. It'll make them easier to protect. I'm going to track down that Tachikoma, and some decent firepower."
It wasn't heroism. It was an excuse. Jet would never have forgiven herself if Ford was killed, while she stayed safe on Gnarlycurl. Everything else was just dressing it up to hide the truth.
"Fucking A!" Ford practically punched the air.
"Be ready in Five Minutes. I'll get the Gruppe."
----
Five minutes later, six battered Panzer Kunstler, one Tachikoma that'd been 'convinced' to join in by a few quick 'innacuracies' and a rag-tag convoy of space vehicles that'd been dredged up from willing and unwilling owners were waiting to depart. The Toyota Hilux was stolen, with a madboy's shockcannon hastily welded onto a mount in the cargo bay.
It looked positively African.
There were a few weapons. But nothing really worth having. She'd bodged together some knuckledbombers for her own use, and Gant had liberated a coilgun and powerpack from a Zig.
Tyko had the crazy awesome idea to try hijacking an enemy fighter for their own escort. It was her decision if she found she had the opportunity.
Jet sat on the bonnet of the Dragon Wagon, at the head of the convoy. An emergency patch from a catgirl was holding her leg together. The catgirl herself was still fussing around Gant's leg, getting as much down as she could
The convoy was ready. She'd informed the tower. They had their callsign. Only one thing remained.
Trying to sound like she knew what she was doing. Jet took a deep breath, and opened a comm channel inside her mind. Part of her still thought she was crazy, but she just had to turn back and look at the truck's driver to know she was right.
"Alright everyone. This is how it's going to work. You fly. We plough the road. We all go down there. We pick up people. We come back here. Then we do it again. And again. And again until this is over. If you don't think you can do that, stay here. We'll find someone else to drive. Otherwise.... stick close. Don't get seperated. Don't fall behind. And good luck everyone. It's time to sign the book of history."
Even if the last line was stolen from a Sabaton song, it seemed to meet the purpose.
"Angreifen!"
---------
Edit: Tweaked based on comment below.
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small quibbles - The 'curl doesn't have that kind of bay, it's got 'airlockvators' from the summit, one each 10x20ft, 10x10, and 10x5, plus a stairwell. The largest is quite capable of handling SC class vehicles like the mentioned waved truck, or WC in vehicle mode. Standing, he can ride it with a freind or two.
Herschel Rosenberg & the ship's Julian Freiz would be unloading injured, Myrtle does help with first aide but Irving doesn't know more than bandaids and bactine, and both are too frail for moving
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows
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stretchers these years. Micheal and possibly Shuko will be doing S&R in the Magic Bus (which has a short goober ring boarding tube to connect to the enclosed 5x10 lock or stairs) and KITT10 willbe part of this counterstrike group. I think that covers all of my crew...
Edit because first read I thought this was aftermath - and Mike won't be leaving in the Bus till things settle down, either
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
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The Magic Bus might well be following them..... band together for safety in numbers and let the redshirts take the bullets.
To cut a long story short, the next few hours go with them making runs down.... the Kunstler intercepting missiles, or fighters making a run at the convoy, with occasional assistance from friendly forces. Then holding off ground forces, then doing the same all the way back up again. Some vehicles get shot down. And in a burst of crazy awesome a few Boskone swordfish are stolen by virtue of simply ripping the cockpit open and letting the pilot walk home.... or a zig that was pilot-killed.
They're making runs right up until the end of hostilities, collecting better weapons and equipment from the debris.... and probable end up getting quite a lot of people out.
Next day, is when Jet and Ford discover that a rotary polisher and turtlewax can have 'interesting' effects. A toast to absent friends. And until someone comes up with a better idea, Jet is placed in command of the Engel Gruppe to replace Max, and it feels strangely like gravrobbing. And paying for repairs afterwards is going to be a problem
Unless anyone has any objections?
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Well, I suppose it's true that the Bus isn't that much more exposed doing something useful and in motion than parked on one of the pyramid's side ramps, and there's a good bit more room for on the spot first aid in a coach than a carmod. Plus it can tube to airlocks or downed craft if the inhabitants have no or damaged vac suits. Irving will be the one taking it out though, Michael is needed as ATC and pilot on the bridge for now.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows
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Folks, I still have a file with all the snippets up to the thread-bump sorted into a story skeleton. I'll put this together.
What we really need are some more scenes of ground action - a scene that lets the Fen know exactly what the Boskos are after (either somebody overhears the initial orders given when they breach the perimeter and relays a recording to the Con staff, or the invaders make a direct announcement of some sort), followed by many scenes of civilian-evac and "fighting in the hallways", including Kara's death scene. A few scenes of space combat wouldn't be amiss, either.
Don't worry about them fitting (or not fitting) together. This is going to be a prime example of the fog of war; some disjointedness is acceptable.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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Quote:Jeph was now seated at one of the consoles, Nene next to her, and was in a tense phone conversation of sorts with their now somewhat liberated AI as the rest of the action was unfolding around them. Up until she snapped her head up.
"Wait, Sparky, repeat that again?" She nodded, still not really looking at anything, and what little color her skin had drained out. "Oh fuck it all." She looked up at Noah, looking grim. "Noah. They're after the file you brought. Sparky overheard them on what few monitors aboard ship weren't cut out discussing why they were launching "
Will that accomplish what we need, Rob? 
--
"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor
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Yep. 8)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
robkelk Wrote:Folks, I still have a file with all the snippets up to the thread-bump sorted into a story skeleton. I'll put this together. Great.
Quote:What we really need are some more scenes of ground action - a scene that lets the Fen know exactly what the Boskos are after (either somebody overhears the initial orders given when they breach the perimeter and relays a recording to the Con staff, or the invaders make a direct announcement of some sort), followed by many scenes of civilian-evac and "fighting in the hallways", including Kara's death scene. A few scenes of space combat wouldn't be amiss, either.
Have to look over the whole thing again, maybe I can think about another part.
Quote:Don't worry about them fitting (or not fitting) together. This is going to be a prime example of the fog of war; some disjointedness is acceptable.
*grin*
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Been fighting to get motivation back for writing. Eugh. Too many shinies and too many calls for my time.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''
-- James Nicoll
Brains looked around. The general anouncement of a Boskone attack on SerenityCon had just been made, and reactions varied between disbelief, panic, and purposeful action. He was pretty sure he and his family could get out OK, but, there were people here who'd need help.
He'd found already that the stair-climbing morph of his wheelchair wasn't unique - there were at least two he'd seen in action, and the design of several others was suggestive. Present were quite a few older, and less healthy, Fen who were resisting the idea of a biomod, until it was understood better. Was anyone thinking how they'd get out of here?
"Uran?" "Yes Brains." "If you'd go get Doctor Venus, and the Gibson Girls, I think we've an evacuation to organise."
---
The Gibson Girls proved very useful. Fortunately they'd been in their battle forms, though mostly unarmed, as they'd been cos-playing drider Japanese schoolgirls around the con. Charlie was scouting, invisible, when needed swimming through walls. There were Boskone in the con buildings, trying to keep people away from the car parks. Dana was hanging back, tele-operating their shared bimbot swarm. Fighting their way in from the car park. In theory she could run half-a-dozen, and still be at full combat effectiveness, but none of this was battle tested.
They'd lost three bimbots so far. She-Hulk had gone down to some sort of anti-tank weapon. Her force field was pretty good, but it boosted her strength as well as protected her, and she'd been de-shelling a Boskone powered armour trooper. Marvelgirl had fared better, till she got hit by a kinetic round after an EMP grenade weakened her. Battlecat, a kitty cyborg based on a PC of Brains, was only lightly armoured, and was like the others reduced to a costume and shreds of wet plastic.
Uran got to argue with a Berserker. It was all rage and strength, and initially her martial arts let her hold it off. Brains and some of the others had rigged a mobile force field bubble, anchored to three of the wheelchairs, which so far had stopped any shrapnel, and ricochets. In the middle of their formation were four stretchers, on rigged anti-gravity floats, tended by Doctor Venus. The fitter of the evacuees were helping the slower along. There were about twenty-five of them, including three older children that'd been separated from their parents.
Then Uran zigged when she should have zagged. The Berserker clipped her, and she flew back more than thirty feet, through a pillar, and into a solid wall. Maybe the Berserker laughed, but you couldn't tell from the sound it made. Uran got up, shook her head, and looked determined. Then walked slowly towards the Berserker as it unloaded a heavy machine gun at her, then a grenade.
As the evacuees rounded another corner, away from the fight, Brains looked back. Charlie swam out of the floor, a bright-red six-legged cat centaur, then set herself as she turned black, to telemech the Berserker. Brains heard familiar music, the original 'Astro Boy' theme, as Uran blurred into sight and flew through the Berserker, and the wall behind it. "I hope she's not too upset about that", Brains thought.
---
At the cost of one more bimbot, a Spiderwoman, they'd made it to the car park. Not bad for superhero props intended for the Masquerade. Quite a few of the vehicles were damaged, and it was generally pretty chaotic. Brains paused to assess things. One of the people who'd been most useful in organising the evacuees, an older man with a limp, stepped forward. He took off his glasses, fumbled under his chin, then peeled off his face.
"Always wanted to do that", said Uncle Jack, as he straightened up, and peeled off liver-spotted skin gloves.
"Now, you got us some transport to get us all out of here?"
Brain numbly gestured towards War Rocket Ajax, which was skirting the edge of the car park towards them.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
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