Space-Mad (Ch. 3b: Day 1, pt. II)

psikeout · Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 3:44 pm

There was no time. Sure, Rock recoiled as quickly as he could, teeth clenched, face wincing behind his mirrored visor, but there was a limit to what nervous system signals could even do for him in that split second.

There was a deafening explosion as the cluster of micro-missiles struck, and the two figures were forcibly separated in a flash of flame.

Rock tumbled and skidded backwards in a blur, trailing smoke. He landed with one final, unceremonious, cartwheeling flop, face down on the green planetoid. Both Rock and Tracer were wearing armor; the difference was, hers was made of hefty, rigid plates, and his... not so much.

NPC · Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 3:46 pm

Meanwhile, something whistled and whooshed away. Every one of the tiny, little explosives had hit except one: it went spiraling aimlessly without target, leaving a fanciful, curly, vaguely smoky vapor trail... that by sheer misfortune carried it directly to their objective planetoid.

...

...

*Pop* went the distant explosion hollowly.

Diluss · Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 4:34 pm

Coop had, for all intents and purposes, calmly and levelly removed his space suit, and glided across to where the scientist squirrel had indicated. It was an odd experience, flying in low-gravity conditions, but the bird seemed to adjust remarkably well, and with a little bobbing, made his way safely over to the other planet, where—

—where a rocket whizzed past him, and hit the small metal cupola, a few meters further on, that graced the crown of the spheroid.

"Ssssss!" Coop hissed, and spun around on one heel.

His face contorted in rage, he began to yell over the radio.

"Alright," he shouted, "will someone tell Captain Justice to shut up and stop annoying the person with the missiles before she hits something important and we all die in deep space!? Tracer, it's bad enough that I have to be stuck on this mission with you without your insane past coming too, and if you fire one more shot" he continued to rant, "one more, I will come over there and bury you on that planet, do you understand? I will dig you a grave with your own helmet and I will—"

NPC · Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 4:46 pm

Whatever Coop had been intending to say was cut off by a sudden burst of what sounded like microphone feedback. The entire area within the shield bubble of Mad Space resonated with an ear-shattering tonal screech that rose in intensity and steadiness until it reached something in the vicinity of a single, long, screaming G sharp note, which only got louder as it echoed against itself, and which showed no signs of stopping. The noise cut through the air inside the shuttle, and through the metal of the shuttle itself, and through every structure visible from where the crew was roughly located.

Another tone began to sound in harmony with the first one, dropping in pitch past a low hum, into a deep rumble, and finally into a infrasonic drone that could no longer be heard, but nevertheless made hearing impossible. The vibration froze the brain stem, and grabbed the heart, squeezing and not letting go.

There was a terrible sensation, as if the ground was crawling, shifting underneath everyone's feet, and then there was silence.

Mie · Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 7:11 pm

Tracer wouldn't have time to be counting lucky stars, gloating, or even appraising damage, for what would likely seem as no less than an eye's blink after her surprise missile barrage, a snapping, crackling orb of lightning sailed squarely at llama's chest, to be followed immediately up by the very angry monkey who threw it -- or at least her electrified foot, in a knee cap-aimed stomp out of nowhere.

Jam seemed to care little about whether or not her attempts to maim the traitor met their mark, either. No, amid a soundtrack of Coop's incessant threats , quantity was job one, and Tracer's immediate vicinity lit up like a fireworks finale. Worth noting was that rather than striking her well-fortified foe, the sparking simian's intent seemed to be grappling, or so one could derive from the repeated attempts to grab at the llama's head. Were she to miss her target, the forebodingly blue electrical field the primate emanated (one could only guess what it might do on contact), was all too eager to bridge the small gap, anyway, leaping at the llama in spitting, ephemeral arcs that momentarily joined Tracer's head to Jam's outstretched hand.

Precisely what she planned to do with the fugitive... well, she probably hadn't thought that far ahead, nor would she get the indulgence, for somewhere amid her unpunctuated assault, something broke space. Jam's hands uselessly flew up to her helmeted ears as she attempted in vain to identify the source of the phenomenon. It only got worse as she searched for it, though, and pretty soon, a jarring discomfort rooted her to the spot, where she sunk into a crouch, still clutching her head, waiting for... whatever was happening to stop.

...But then, even when it did, she had just as little an idea of what it was, or what to do.

Tau · Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 3:30 am

Tau wasn't too concerned with the ongoing fight between his allies and the traitor, well, at least no more concerned with it then he need be to ensure both his own security and that of the VIPs. Though the launching of the missiles did briefly draw his interest for a brief moment, it quickly lost his interest once he concluded they weren't an immediate threat to himself or the VIP.

"It would appear it was a good thing you were preoccupied until recently, otherwise you may have been close to the others... " He'd trail off right about the time the shrill sound started.

Seafarinhare · Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 4:59 am

Wild Badge reached for his belt, and produced a pair of hand-cuffs made of a metal that Dr. Henshin swore up and down was unbreakable... But Hoji was certain that Tracer would test that theory -- but before he could slap them on her, a flurry of rockets exploded.

He was in the vicinity of the explosion, but not ground zero thankfully. With how many micro-missiles went off at once, though, it was hard to keep his mind on the bright side of things. The force of the explosion knocked him back as he held a barrier around himself to deflect bombarding shrapnel.

"Hgh!"

He hit the ground in a slow roll before climbing to his feet to survey the damage. Then there was angry yelling over the comm.

"...Will someone tell Captain Justice to shut up..."

Wild Badge huffed. "Captain Justice." He says that like it's a bad thing. Of course, his train of thought was disrupted by Jam jumping into the fray in what seemed like retaliation on Tracer for the attack on her white monkey partner.

And then the ear-shattering noise. Hoji made futile attempts at blocking out the noise by pressing his hands to the sides of his helmet, his eyes scanning for the source. But it just got worse with no viable solution, and it felt like his head was splitting open.

Once the sound hit a low hum, he let one hand fall to the ground in front of him as he lurched forward on one knee, then there was simply ringing and finally, sweet silence.

"What the hell...?"

Was about all he could verbalize.

Rachel · Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 2:54 pm

Tracer tumbled back from the explosion herself. But not nearly as far as Rock went, it was a few rolls before she had stopped on her feet. There was no time to get herself steady though, because the pink primate was all over her.

Tracers armor was looking like crap. Most of the orange and black paint had been burnt off, dents formed all over her armor plating and the ballistics suit underneath was starting to fall apart, in some places the Kevlar weave was clearly visible under the outer insoluation which provided most of her electrical and fire protection.

Needless to say, not only did Jam's attacks hit its mark, but her electrical insulation was now full of holes. Her entire body went into a spasm from the ball of energy hit her. Tracer had lost her upper hand against the sparky monkey with the culmination of all this fighting, exploding cards and the final blow that did quite a bit of damage herself as well as the considerably less protected monkey.

The only thing that saved Tracers knee was the jerking she was doing, but it didn't save her head from getting grabbed and more electricity being pumped into her.

And then Jam suddenly stopped, Tracer huffed in air, for the breif moment the sparking stopped and... she didn't attack Jam while she was open, nor did she sneer or respond.

She just fell over.

No more fighting, no more moving, Jam had delivered the final blow. Tracer just lay there, her visor black and her suit smoking ever so faintly. The shrill cry though the void was lost on Tracer entirely.

Greens · Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 5:07 pm

All the damn while, Ace was doing his best to lope back into whatever position he knew the others needed him to be. Overshot much? An understatement. But he was taking way too long to get there, and he knew it. Things weren't helped in the least when he saw first-hand, a freaking missile whiz over his head and smash a bullseye on the only thing on their target planetoid that wasn't a crystal. So of course, he doubled his efforts, but something else... something very unlucky happened.

The noise was grating at first, something he could grit his teeth and try to power through, but all too quickly became nothing short of overwhelming. He was caught mid-jump when the screeching cacophony simply overpowered him, and Ace was rendered unable to even land properly, tripping and skidding and tumbling along the ground. By instinct, his hands went to his head, but any help they might've given were nullified by the helmet that (as far as he knew) was required to wear so long as he was interested in breathing. He screamed at the top of his lungs, and though they were easily muffled by the noise, it was a small comfort just to have the pressure in his chest balance out the pressure in his head.

When it was finally over, the serval was already panting a little, still cringing on and off from the pain, and lingering ringing in his tall, yellow ears. But he kept moving all the same. With one final bound over the orange lining, he found things could be worse, and things could be much better. Tracer was down for the count, and that was good. But all the same, he wasn't happy with how things turned out.

He swore, quietly. And then again, more loudly, pounding his fist against the metal junction points for the conduits, but it was only when he saw Rock's frame lying limply on the landscape did he seem truly spooked. He'd seen the stray missile fly by, and it wasn't hard to put two and two together.

"Rock...!" he spat, and made tracks in his direction.

NPC · Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 5:33 pm

The blast of noise had long ago burst away from the strangely shaped orbiting bodies and would start to fade the farther it traveled. Down on Earth, confusion erupted as the strange frequency reached the planet, but by then, it was only an annoying whine.

Back at the vicinity of the ARK, things seemed to have calmed, and the air was now silent within the yellow-pulsing barrier around the facility. The planetoid that had received the wayward missile remained inactive...

...but only for a moment.

One by one, the crystals protruding from its surface suddenly exploded in flashes of color, the spiky rocks disintegrating from the force of it. Soon after, the lights surrounding the green-pill-planet flickered, some even shattering outward as well, and whatever mysterious force was causing it all seemed to be expanding out, up towards the ARK.

Flashes began to occur all around, spheres of explosive color, rapidly flashing in the sky above, appearing all around. They crackled with energy, tendrils of multicolored lightning reaching out from each, and they all began to inflate as more and more started to come into being farther out into space and around the ARK. Soon, they were conjoining, becoming one large mass as they grew.

Eventually, the spheres of flashing light began to engulf the ARK and all that surrounded it, as though a new star was forming in the orbit of Earth. Soon, it was completely encasing the space colony, and whomever was trapped inside would be feeling a vibrating sensation, like electricity running through their systems.

And, without a sound, there was a blast of shocking white light, and the visitors of the ARK would soon find themselves falling into blackness.

Space-Mad (Ch. 3b: Day 1, pt. II)

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