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

NPC · Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 10:04 pm

The helmet from the first vaporized creature dropped down at Jam's feet; it's eyes flickered and winked out.

The crowd of watery blob-monsters turned to jam — except for the one that Coop had hit, which froze as the impact from the grenade connected with it. The grenade blew up, the monster did not. After remaining motionless for a nano-second, it turned and directed its attention to the bird.

The others watched Jam. They did not seem especially intelligent, because it was not long before they were repeating their attacks again—directing various lightning-fast water-tentacles flying out to rivet to the landscape whatever they touched. As their attacks progressed, though, it was obvious something had changed, subtly. Even though the creatures were still attacking very nearly everyone. Two of them had withdrawn a short distance from the pink monkey and were focusing their attention on her, strictly through their almost unbelievably effective water-tentacle attack.

The one that been attacked specifically by Coop considered its new target, the Eagle.

It twitched, and tilted its helmet-head forward slightly. A pair of eye-beams launched out of the thing's visor—to the accompaniment of a somewhat disappointing 'pewm' noise—and the amorphous shape of the creature split into a series of riveting tentacles, which launched across the landscape almost as fast as the beams themselves, back to where Coop stood.

psikeout · Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 11:41 pm

Rock had a little difficulty responding to Tau at first. He tried to crouch so quickly that he actually pulled his feet off the ground beneath him by accident for a second in the reduced gravity, but when he pushed off, he went soaring up above and away from the blasts directed at him, beyond the creatures' gelatinous reach. During his drifting several-second flight, he unholstered his pistol and let fly an energized, concussive barrage. Quantity over quality in this case—it was too chaotic, and midair was not an ideal shooting platform, so he just let'er rip and tried not to hit friendlies.

It was only after he landed (next to one of those huge orange conduits) that he blurted, "Any data's good, Tau," in reply between breaths heaved in mid-sprint. Astrid didn't get any answer for the moment, though; maybe he figured she'd get the idea that they already got through the shield and were immersed in the sweaty armpit of their objective when she heard all the gunfire and shouting over the radio.

Speaking of which, insert the raucous rattle of more shots fired, a loud grunt as he leaped like a cheetah through across the reduced-gravity landmass, and some manner of thud, or crunch, or other generic metallic smashing noise as he took a try at flying-hulk-smashing one of Jam's blobby foes from behind with a pair of balled fists.

Was he familiar with these? No. Their metal heads were the parts that shot beams everywhere, though, and Rock had a good notion that punching what looked like a mass of living sparkle toothpaste wouldn't be a good idea, though, and targeted the helmet accordingly.

Rachel · Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 12:08 am

The Llama looked less then concerned when the gelatinous foes started to jiggle towards them. When they started launching attacks she launched herself to the left as she pulled the Assault rifle from her back. she came to a stop, and fired the rifle from the hip aiming for the only non-jello part of the beings attacking.

"Aim for the helmets." She said in her normal monotone through the radio, no inflation at all even as her gun roared and she peppered holes through the one in front of her. This was more or less buying time while her shoulder cannon charged itself and finally fired off a beam of energy into the helmet of the nearest jello-man.

Tau · Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 12:09 am

Several of the optics located on Tau's body facing the shuttle shifted their focus towards the airlock as its doors slid open and Astrid departed from the shuttle while making her announcement. Tau would reply on open coms shortly after she finished general announcement. Meanwhile, the drone simply continued to simultaneously observe the others while keeping an 'eye' on the general surroundings for signs of new possible hostiles, though still kept well aware as to the location, and actions, of ones already known.

"Mission objectives understood. Shifting focus to escort duty unless otherwise instructed."

Then would reply to Rock on closed/direct coms.
... "Offer for physical assistance withdrawn, priority shifted." A short pause followed prior to a second response. "P series artificial chaos; destruction of a units core control unit will destabilize a unit's nanites. The P series physical combat capabilities are quicker and more formidable then its energy attacks." There was another brief pause. "It should be noted ingestion of the unit's fluids and/or nanites should be avoided. The p series is also capable of detaching, and detonating, portions of it's body."

NPC · Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 12:36 am

The water creatures went down, one after the other, until there was only one left. It swayed gently, wobbling its head at them. It took a few tentative stabs, but it was obvious that it was no longer deeply invested in the battle.

Then, rising over the short-range horizon of the pill-shaped planetoid they were on, was one more blob. A large one.

It floated in the air like a zeppelin, and was expanded to a grotesque size, obscuring its head and making it unavailable for easy reach from the ground. Silently, approaching from the rear, drifted another of the zeppelin-chaoses, unseen by anyone not looking back in that direction.

The last P-1, deciding that it was no longer needed, melted back to the ground. It engulfed the form of its helmet and leaked discreetly away, as the two unsettlingly large artificial chaos units floated closer.

The one in front of them rippled. It's 'skin' of static energy and shimmering colloidal fluids undulated in an invisible breeze.

Then, it began to melt.

The area directly under the tremendous blimp creature was rapidly saturated with the creature itself—huge, chunky droplets leaked discretely away out of the chaos unit's surface and splashed onto the ground, where they began to swell and stretch, and assume shapes. As the creature continued to spill down onto the ground, the shapes began to become opaque, changing and swirling, and forming angular blocks which stretched up out of the shimmering mass with a unpleasantly organic appearance of growth.

Eyes. Green eyes lit up the pool. Tiny, tiny little helmeted mini-chaoses, manufactured out of the increasingly-likely-not-to-be-water itself, were separating and pulling apart and spreading out, inching their way across the planetoid's surface like cycloptic slugs.

Behind them, the second floating chaos thing had emptied itself in the same way, and a sea of green-masked, mono-eyed, gelatinous little slimeballs—each about a foot tall—was seething out around the group. The two helmets left behind — apparently able to float without their inflated mass — hung in the air, and surveyed their newly spawned armies like a pair of generals.

Greens · Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 5:36 pm

With the first coming of these bizarre, gelatinous creatures, Ace wasn't sure what to think. "Tell me these aren't aliens," he first mentioned with a distinct dullness in his voice. When they moved, so did he-- action rolling off to the side as per his instinct's ever-beneficial request. 'If these are aliens,' he thought, 'My paycheck is getting doubled.' But something about this time was different, and that something was outer space. The half-gravity he propelled himself to on impulse had him pseudo-flying off to the side a little higher and a little farther than he'd originally intended. And it did well to keep him out of trouble, but by the time he landed, back against one of the orange, pipe-looking things, the battle was already over.

Or so it seemed.

With the second coming of these bizarre, gelatinous creatures, Ace knew exactly what to think. With a toothy little grin visible beneath his helmet, the serval pressed his feet against the conduit, and shoved forward, bracing himself to make like Chao Yun Fat right then and there. Sure enough, he went soaring through the air above and ahead of the horde of creatures, and flung his arms out just as quick as ever, delivering one card for every little target he could squeeze in during his airtime. Yes, he still had pouches of cards attached to his wrists outside of his space suit. Yes, they were held on by hastily applied duct tape. Yes, they were just as effective (if not moreso) in space as they were on planet Earth.

Mie · Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 6:17 pm

Though she hadn't gotten to dispatch nearly as many of their visitors as she'd have liked to, Jam rested assured that her handiwork rated the highest on the panache scale, and sufficed to clap the nonexistent space dust from her hands in a menacing, "can you guess what I'm going to do to you" sort of way at the final remaining adversary. But when its back up arrived en mass via gelatinous air-drop-then-cellular-division, her threatening grin faltered invisibly beneath her visor, to be replaced with a steep frown beneath nearly horizontal brows.

With a final glance back to where her originally intended victim once stood, she huffed a laborious sigh along with some choice expletives, before igniting her shield with a simultaneous (and highly unnecessary) snap of her wrists, and launching herself into the fray.

To the astute, the glowing, semi-transparent orb encasing the severely back-lit simian shined brighter than usual, and bled wispy electric tendrils of varying length, which undulated in idleness, and seemed to reach for nearby targets when close enough; as a whole, it spat and popped ferociously, not unlike hot oil devouring ice cubes. Surrounded by the newly formed army on all sides, Jam indiscriminately shoved crackling balls of lightning flying through the pulsating sphere via rapid fire snapping kicks, punches, and palm strikes. Devastating though she would prove to the individual artificial Chaoses, it probably amounted to little more than a drop in the bucket.

Rachel · Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 6:31 pm

The Llama foresaw the easily dispatched united being replaced by numbers and not quality. She changed the magazine in her gun in a calm and methodical fashion as her cannon readied for another volley. Once it reached a pleasing glow she stepped forward, turning away from where others in the group entered the fray, to avoid harming them just yet. the cannon fired a continuous beam that pivoted at her shoulder. The indiscriminate beam of destruction bore holes into helmets just as well as it did the earth and anything else that it came into contact with.

The beam's limited energy supply trickled out quickly and was followed up but another heavy spraying of bullet fire. While she fired off rounds into the lot she began side step keeping her target changing and herself moving to avoid becoming a easy target. This was more of a habit then actual concern for her own well being. Tracer was very confident in her suit's ability to defend her from the damage the gooey enemies could dish out.

psikeout · Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 6:35 pm

During that brief moment of calm, Rock stopped behind a conduit and scanned around for more hazards, lest anything get the drop on them. Sure enough, there came more Artificial Chaos, albeit the Special Sumo Edition models, apparently. He climbed atop one of the orange tubes and watched carefully before acting.

Destroying the core destabilizes its nanites, echoed Tau's words in Rock's head as he observed the two metal heads hovering over their blobby little drones. With just one more quick check around himself (he was still wary of "the one that got away"), he assumed a rock-solid, two-handed shooting stance, raised his pistol, lined up his sights, and, rather than shooting at any of the blobs, popped one artistically clean shot out at the first one's hovering, disembodied head.

Ingestion of the unit's fluids and/or nanites should be avoided, Tau had said. The implications of this arrived to Rock for the first time as he fired his second shot, this time at the second hovering head. His face twisted up. Ingestion?

Wait, what.

"Why the hell would anybody drink these?" Rock asked Tau candidly.

NPC · Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 7:10 pm

The first sumo-helmet crumpled and dropped to the ground, the other hovered in the air briefly, before vanishing with a flash and small thunder-clap.

The small chaoses on the ground struggled on towards the group, severely depleted by the incredible massing of firepower (and electric power) that had been focused on them.

Then one of them blew up.

A second one blew up.

The crowd of small jelly blobs began to explode violently, exploding at dangerously increasing speeds until the group was surrounded by a firestorm of detonations. Tiny pieces of metal and goo sprayed across the surface of the planet.

The explosions ended, leaving the group in the middle of an immense stretch of scorched earth and shattered helmet fragments.

Tau · Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 7:16 pm

With the presence of both the 'VIP' and hostile forces, Tau found the need to have a weapon at hand. That being the case, he would reach his left hand behind his back toward his left stabilizer 'pod', which upon his hand coming close enough, briefly retracted a small panel and ejected his auto-pistol, which he then collected the instant it was free of storage.

COM-> Rock: "Involuntary ingestion is possible during attacks attacks to the head."

Weapon now in hand, he shifted his positioning to face Astrid's direction, but kept well aware of his surroundings by use of the other various optics spread across his body. He might have been on escort duty, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to watch his own back too, so to say. While he often spoke like a will-less, obedient drone, he did have his own interests at mind: in this case, not becoming space trash.

"The others appear to be more then capable of handling the current situation. I will remain as a bodyguard until otherwise required or instructed."

psikeout · Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 8:23 pm

As the explosions went off all around (apparently, destroying the central heads was the right route, albeit a messy one), Rock stuck firmly to his spot, more distant from the center of the chaos, unwavering as the initial wave of heat poured over him, and the various debris bounced off his suit. Operating on someone else's dollar, he had readily sprung for one that was designed to be resistant to high-velocity orbital debris, so the smattering of shrapnel actually wasn't any big deal. No, the look of discomfort on his face was... actually from imagining what Tau was talking about.

"Keepin' my helmet on for the rest of the mission, then," he mumbled. Snapping back to business mode, he eventually shook his head, lowered his gun, made one more quick glance around for hostiles, then called out:

"Status check—everybody good to move on?"

The smoke hadn't yet cleared, and the battlefield was so contoured he couldn't see everyone to be sure if any of the team's members had been laid out by that set of blasts.

Seafarinhare · Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 8:35 pm

"Hold it!"

Ready as they may have been, there was one more obstacle to overcome before they advanced. Out of seemingly nowhere, the costumed vigilante with the iconic golden scarf dropped in front of the motley group of invaders.

He straightened his posture upon landing, and pointed an accusing finger at the group,

"Stop right there, criminal scum!"

He was on their radio frequency, so his one-liners would not go unheard.

Mie · Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 9:20 pm

By the third explosion, the message to get out of the thick of the mob was loud and clear, but even for Jam, it came too late. As the entirety of the crowd lit up like a fireworks show, the monkey in the middle was punished for her zeal; though her faithful shield absorbed the brunt of the blast, and dissipated with an inaudible pop, its contents were knocked off her feet, landing none too painfully a few yards away, still perfectly in range of the debris-and-Chaos-goop-rain blanketing the capsule. Space suit or no space suit, the substances she found herself covered with upon sitting up begged a disgusted sneer that was too invisible to satisfactorily convey her disdain. Rock's radio prompted a lack-luster "I'm ...good," as the primate clambered to her feet, and gradually began to make her way over at a wide, awkward gait that displayed all the physical cues of being splattered with something icky.

That was until their unexpected arrival jarred her to an abrupt stop (or as much of one as gravity would allow), and drew a stare of complete and utter ill-tempered, exasperated disbelief.

Probably not the response Badge hoped for, or was used to, but the first he'd get was a deadpan, "You have got to be f**kin' kiddin' me."

psikeout · Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 9:42 pm

Meanwhile in the background, Rock watched silently at first, then, in awe and amusement, mumbled, "The stones on this guy."

It was true. Badge had some serious backbone to pull the halt, evildoers routine on a group as large and well-armed as theirs all by his lonesome. Fortunately, it wouldn't come down to any test of mettle like that—Rock stepped forward off his conduit perch and walked forward, waving a hand over his head.

"Yo! Hey. Badge. It's me—Rock." He fished around for something more specific. "Y'know, from the Yellow Desert thing. And Westside."

And everywhere else there's been a disaster recently went unsaid.

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

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