Scene #7238: SR Side-W: Annihilation

Owner	Pose
Big Boss	ARES STATION ICARUS, THE DARKNESS OF SPACE It's been a long ride through the stars. The Flotilla stealth-craft has been quiet enough to prevent detection, and roomy enough to fit the whole squad. Every member of the Watch present has been offered a spacesuit, stolen from the AresSpace command center. Big Boss is not here, nor are any of his men. They're busy with something else, apparently, and have sent the Watch to focus on this, with the understanding the enemy is likely on high-alert, and will suspect an attack. The station finally is in site. It's large, and more circular than you'd expect - resembling something more out of a sci-fi movie than the stations of the late 20th century. It's a double-ringed setup, with a central pillar, divided from it by access corridors. The sleek gunmetal design makes it clear they're up against something dangerous. They have no up-to-date maps, but they have a layout of the station from various efforts, allowing them to identify their targets. The outside rings contain most of the 'basics', like the Living Quarters, Storage, and similar. The inside pillar is the primary target, but the easiest access is through the outside rings, unless they want to navigate through maintenance hell. This is where you'll find R&D, the Command Center, and the Thor Shots themselves, with one currently armed. The ship reaches a halt. The group is unlikely to want to dock in and go Extremely Undeniably Loud (though they can, if they wish). You can float in through the docking port or a maintenance airlock. Inner ring airlocks are more secured, outer ring airlocks are much easier to enter.Pick an entrance and pick a direction. There's sure to be shenanigans either way. Like the fact that there is no prediction for there to be gravity in here.
Klaus Ridell	The sky is full of diamonds. Klaus has been thinking it since they left the ground. His fingers have been pressed against the viewports as, once again, he enters the place where legs cannot take you, the place no matter how high you climb you cannot reach. You could leap from the highest mountain and still fall before you touched the black night. Your fingers could never clutch the diamonds spread across the velvet. It's beautiful. It's unerringly beautiful. It's beautiful in a way nothing else is, a cold, stark beauty pinpricked with cold, stark stars. Those fingers pull reluctantly away as they near their target. Much as he'd love to wander through the stars he has something important to do. There's millions - millions! What an idea! - of people down there, trapped, unable to make even a single choice for themselves. It had been impressed upon him, this scale, this massive, ponderous existence, this thing called 'the weight of a world.' So he moves up to the airlock. He's dressed in a maintenance space suit. His face is mostly hidden by all the computer bits and bobs flickering on-screen. A backpack full of air hangs over his shoulders. A corporate emblem is emblazoned on his jacket. The only thing unusual is that the pressure regulator on the throat of his suit looks suspiciously like a compass. How odd, that. Idly, he flicks the gauge. It spins. A more complete symbol comes out of Damocles, the eight-point spiked wheel. It disappears into the gauge. The young man gives a barely-visible grin behind his faceplate. Klaus goes tumbling out. Momentarily he is surprised. Weightlessness...what a sensation. Where his feet don't touch anything at all. He adapts rather quickly, though. A grappling hook and rope hook him onto the maintenance hatch. It's going to be a maze in there, but that's fine. Klaus likes mazes. Mazes are his natural habitat as much as the open sky is. Anywhere you can get lost is a place Klaus adores. The suit's fingers pops open. Small electrical keys emerges from one hand; from the other, complex-looking mechanical lockpicks. Klaus leans forward to open the maintenance hatch as quietly as he can. He's going in the long, sneaky way, after all, towards whatever maintenance hubs he can find - a generator room, life support systems, whatever. He's fairly adept at that kind of thing, much more so than fighting.
Selene	Selene's never been in space before, so adjusting to all the new sights and feeling of her weight not being quite right is... Not taking as long as it probably should. She's taken a minute to just bound around like an idiot before the start of the mission, but she's got her game face on now, prepared to do whatever it takes to secure the Thor Shot! First things first: Getting her Pokemon acclimated to the environment as well. She lets the Gengar out ahead of time, the purple ghost thing hiding beneath her as a shadow on the ground. She's opted to go in through the OUTER RING airlocks, even going as far as painting her face in gray paint to blend in (barely) with the gunmetal gray of the steel around her. Her target: The COMMAND CENTER. She might not be equipped to actually hijack the thing with the level of technology present here, but that doesn't mean she can't try to secure the path for her allies. To get to the command center, though, means navigating through the outer ring! Thus, Selene takes a path that might take her closer to the LIVING QUARTERS where she might be able to intercept anyone trying to respond to the disturbances that will undoubtedly come.
Damocles	Damocles the Chaos Sorcerer is from a universe where space travel is a common thing. Over a million worlds are populated by a humanity which stretches from one tip of the galactic arm to the other. So one might reasonably assume he's been in space before. They would be wrong. Damocles has actually never been off planet. He's been on several planets, but he always travels by portal, teleportation or The Warp. Moreover, in his universe, spaceships use a technology called Grav Plating, which generates reliable artificial gravity. This ship does not have that. So Damocles is learning a lot of things today. Like the fact that he does not like being in Zero G. Gravity is a useful thing when you're a flesh and blood creature. He does have a few technological advantages to help him, though. For one thing, his Astartes armor has magnetic locks on the feet. He's never used them before, but they are there, specifically for Zero G environments. He also has acquired a helmet for his armor. He never bothered with one before, but the space suits they acquired weren't designed for someone his size, so he didn't have much choice. The helmet is a little stuffy, but it's a lot less stuffy than the airless vacuum of space. And that's precisely where he's going. Damocles ain't going to sneak anywhere, being roughly the size of one of the hallways. So, his plan involved combining the two advantages. When the time comes, he steps out the airlock of the ship, and floats in the void of space. Even with all he's seen, he has to take a moment to process everything. The feel of being suspended in the vastness of space. The starscape all around, broken by the looming curve of the planet below. The Warp is a place of swirling chaos, but this is a place of perfect order, and in its way is more impressive than the madness of the Warp could ever be. It takes a moment for Damocles to take in. Once he's done, he holds his hand in front of him. A very minor amount of power is channeled to create a pulling effect directly in front of him, dragging him along more precisely than jets ever could, as he aims towards the central pillar of the station. He isn't looking for any entry point at all, however. His goal is to land on the surface of the station itself, using the maglocks of his feet to grip against it, so he can walk along the outside.
Nova Terra	Nova has actually decided to join the rest of the assault team on the captured Flotilla craft. While she had numerous means of getting to the target station, many with capable stealth tech, it was still an unnecessary risk to bring more than one craft. Though she does of course have her forces stationed nearby, should reinforcements be required. But Nova did decline the use of one of the captured spacesuits. Wearing a spacesuit over a spacesuit seemed redundant. As they prepare to depressurize and exit, Nova reaches beneath the collar of her hostile environment suit and pulls out the full head mask, tucking her ponytail into it as she brings it over her head. Once she brings her visor down over her eyes the suit registers a full seal and activates the life support functions. She then taps in some commands into the suit display on her wrist, before testing her boots against the floor of the ship's airlock. Feeling the resistance she expected, she nods in satisfaction, ready to go. Once outside, Nova pushes off from their arrival craft, floating towards the station as small thrusters in her suit steady her approach. She would ponder on her first moments in space, the overwhelming feeling of being so small in a vast emptiness... But she doesn't remember it. Nor remember when she got used to the feeling. The fact that she finds nothing particularly impressive about the countless pinpricks of light in the black surrounding her, nor the large green and blue gem nearby, indicates that she's probably done this a lot. Blue light washes over the Ghost as she disappears from view. Nova angles in towards the closest docking port on one of the outer rings. She's not too concerned about needing to make her way through to the central pillar from there, given her stealth tech. And it's apparently easier than trying to break in to the pillar itself. Once she gets in, her plan is to head for the R&D section. Since the others have already called the command center and the weapon itself, someone needs to take R&D. Plus you've got to watch those eggheads don't try something smart when they finally realize the station is taken.
Janine Liberi	"You would think this super technofuture would have figured out less bulky spacesuits by now," Janine grouses as she shifts uncomfortably in the confines of her suit. But even that can't really distract her from peeking out the port holes. She's never been to space before, and the sight helps scrape off her rough edges. As they come to a halt, Janine takes a moment to review the information they have. The Command Centre is at the top of the central pillar... all that is between it and them is a lot of hard vacuum. But that's fine. Janine has ways of navigating that. She steps out, into the boundless void. She's weightless, but that's not all that disorienting to her. Gazing upon her own reflection in the visor of her helmet she intones "Catherine." The bridal Persona arises behind her in a flurry of gold sparks, and Janine leaps off confidently. Even in the vacuum of space, Catherine can produce gusts of wind to guide Janine's path as she lands on the exterior of the outer ring. From here, she looks on carefully. Trying to find the airlock closest to the top of the pillar. But there isn't one. That does make sense, you don't want the core of the operation to be completely accessible. But there is precisely one opening. It's not conventional, and it may be a risk, but no one would see it coming. She leaps, and Catherine sends a thread trailing downwards, all the way to the bottom of the pillar. It sticks on, and Janine loops her arm around her Persona's waist as the thread retracts, pulling them both along. Once they're at the bottom of the pillar, Janine carefully drifts below, and then up. Up into the barrel of the Thor Shot. From here, she looks for a way inside. This gun is the point of this whole structure. There has to be a maintenance shaft or something here. Once she has it, she directs Catherine to assail the seals with cutting blasts of air to breach it, before wiggling a thread through to slap at whatever console unlocks the door to enter.
Amelris Belthrone	It's like being in the ocean, floating aimlessly after you've dived deep into the waters, without the risk of drowing... with only a thin layer of fabric saving you from the 'damp' of space. The vision of the stars is nothing new to him. Being this close to them in his physical form RATHER IS. Feeling weightless is something he experienced before... again, not with his body. He spent some time just kind of floating, trying to get his bearing on things and preparing his move on their assault on the station. When they launch, the Red Mage push himself out to float into the void, focusing to not let his stomach churn and looking out at the stars and his target ahead. The stars ARe closer... just not close enough to really change anything. He pushes himself, to float at the station, spinning on himself to let himself go to one of the Maintenance ports. His weapons are inside his suit, as casting spells would be a little of a problem while he's STILL in space, but he could manage it if it comes to that.
Danzo Katou	Danzo, despite being one of the most masterful shinobi in her world's history, has only ever experienced weightlessness in the form of extremely steep and repeated high speed falls. Despite all her missions, space was never one of them. Back then, people left Earth to travel to other dimensions more than they ever did leave its surface entirely. She is, however, after reviewing the material, confident she can manage. Even if she has to wear a kind of bulky and stupid space suit she intends to ditch at the first available opportunity. Not even she wants to absorb the direct ire of the sun, nor test what zero atmospheres of pressure is like. "Everyone's target is the same. The command center. There is no reason to pay much attention to ancilary areas, except as a means of getting there." She says, oddly enough, mostly between Janine and The Boss using comms. "That much simplifies things. It would be best to diversify our approach as much as possible. Moving in large groups will reduce the chance of penetrating the inner areas unnoticed, and will endanger the mission to an unnecessarily large degree if half our manpower at once is cut off." Though, she doesn't intend to maneuver throughout the whole set of rings either. Though it'd be very much up her alley, it's just the same approach as most of the group, which she'd accomplish faster, and mostly result in multiple redundant routes. When the ship's docking point opens up, she spends a few moments examining the central cylinder and aiming for a specific point with subtle zooms and retractions of the lenses in her eyes, comparing each view for a precise trajectory. Tiny little clicks sound from winding high tension into her body and positioning every part of it in just the right way. She kicks off through entirely mundane means, but at extremely high speed, catching up with Janine right away. She considers firing a scouting rocket, but assumes it'd be detected extremely easily against a lot of 'nothing'. Just before reaching Janine's chosen point of entry, she turns herself over and wrangles Isaac Newton by briefly breaching the feet of her suit with flares of rocket thrust, arcing herself up into the space station's exterior, and then anchoring herself with thin thunks of retractible spikes. Switching to grip pads, she starts walking along the outside of the station like she'd walk up a wall. "We have no need of capturing the weapon with its shutters and safeties intact." she verbally agrees. Even at the cost of potentially raising an alarm, the shortest possible route should render the speed of any response inadequate." She does not insist on cutting open the shutters with her actual blades because that'd rip open her space suit completely. However, when Cathering generates her wind, Danzo quickly capitalizes on them, catching the air blades before they dissipate as if on invisible strings, and redirecting them through several more cuts with her mystic code.
Big Boss	The station is, in fact, zero-g. You feel like you're floating as you move. It's honestly kinda surreal, but, it's a puzzle for the mission. Recoil is going to mess up shooting with guns, after all. Klaus shoots for the maintenance door. He cracks it open with his lockpicks and keys, and follows the electrical wiring. There's a maintenance worker not paying attention near the door into the greater station, but he catches the briefest of Klaus as Klaus moves past for the generators. The man doesn't go after him, because he's not exactly sure if he saw someone at all - Klaus is sneaky, after all - but he's much more alert than he was before. Amelris can join up with Klaus, but this makes the guy even more sure there's people he's unfamiliar with moving. They'll have to be very good on their timing to get past him. The generators, once reached, obviously are not 'the sole power in the station'. That would be stupid. They have primary control over lights (which are, thankfully, selective based off area) and access to most things, but almost anything 'actually critical' is going to have backup generators, such as life support or the Thor cannon. Klaus can keep trailing to find life support should he like, but that'll be /far/ more guarded. Selene moves through the airlocks and proceeds towards the LIVING QUARTERS. This is where she gets the big intel - they've got guns. There's a guard with a rifle and sidearm, floating about an off-duty worker. They're chatting, hilariously, about the group. "So, those terrorists are coming in." "Yeah, man, they made themselves way known. Fucking extraversals. Think they can just be cocky." "What do you think they want to use the Thor shot on?" "Fuck if I know. Probably, uh...Bugs? Hopefully Bugs. "Man, there hasn't been a Bug crisis since Chicago, get out of town." If she wants to get to the command center from here, she'll have to neutralize these guys. Damocles is able to magnetically lock onto the surface of the station and walk alongside it. There's cameras and sensors, for debris, which he'll want to avoid, but getting inside is the actual interesting part. What's his plan? The docking port is interesting. There's guards here, obviously waiting for the Watch to eventually, eventually, try and seize the station. They're expecting Nuke Ops, so they have rifles ready, four men assigned to the docking port. Getting past them is necessary to get to R&D, as well as to complete the mission of neutralizing all opposition. The weapons are clearly gyrojet to Nova's eye should they fire - advanced futuristic rifles from the greatest weapons company in this world. Janine, meanwhile, grapples to the maintenance of the central space pillar. Danzo joins her, with her ninja walk and thrusters, and together, they start going through the weapons port - as they do, they take blades of air, cutting straight through the shutters. The Thor shots are /huge/, but they have the skill to destroy them. The problem is: this is going to quickly alert the people inside, so they'll want to start moving straight for the command center to secure it. The Command Center is packed. There's multiple people at computers and chairs, analyzing the Thor shot, waiting for a call-in to fire, watching security feeds, the like. There's more with guns. They suspect the Command Center is going to be swarmed, so the massive pillar is heavily defended. Maybe a dozen men with body armor and those same people-shredding rifles, modified for space usage, though much more inaccurate when not used in single or burst fire.
Klaus Ridell	Klaus's timing is absolutely ridiculous. He doesn't even have a clock on his suit, let alone any source of timekeeping. Yet, as Amelris joins up with him, Klaus directs him nonverbally with unbelievable precision, passing by the maintenance worker in between glances up and general dreary maintenance work. The level of 'to the second' is actually sort of shocking - normal people couldn't keep time that well without a very precise electronic device. They glide into the elevator. He's sure the maintenance man is suspicious - it's hard to slip two people through, let alone when you're the primary stealth expert - but that's fine. Amelris is the brawn! Klaus is not. And Klaus has an escape button Amelris doesn't. He warns Amelris of this briefly over the radio as he sits down at the generator. Space suit fingers reach up to spin the Compass. His outfit changes. An open Hawaiian shirt sort of flickers into being around the astronaut outfit. The blipping electronic displays turn into one of those bizarre sets of sunglasses from the 80s and 90s, the ones with horizontal lines that look tremendously goofy even in the era they're from. Klaus pops open the arm. That is very clearly a Deck, or at least a reasonable fascimile thereof. His fingers flicker across the keyboard as he pulls out a wire. Klaus affixes it to the generator. His suit's HUD, behind the silly sunglasses, transforms, and he slumps forward, staring lifelessly at the viewer. Time to take control of the generator.
Selene	Relaying the information to her allies is easy, once Selene finds out that just about everyone's armed. She keeps herself hidden around a corner as she listens to their conversation, squinting a bit when she hears what the pair knows about the Watch already. She takes a moment to feel the petals on her hat, then strokes her chin when they speak of bugs. She'll have to keep that bug crisis thing in mind the next time she sees that weirdo. For now, though, she needs to figure out how to get past these guards! Turning back to her Gengar, she grabs its cheeks and taps her forehead against it. "Alright, Chuggins. Here's the plan..." After another moment or three of whispering, it's time to get things moving. Selene peeks around the corner once more, then gives the purple ghost a quick hand signal. It slides along the ground rapidly at the guard and worker, looking like an odd shadow with a face on the ground just sliding forward. It's not until the Gengar passes by them that it pops up out of the ground, reaching for their faces to try and smother them with giant purple ghost fists. While it's doing that, Selene comes in from behind. Her weapon: A KNIFE. With the guard being more visibly armed, she's going to try stabbing the guard in the leg to make it easier for the Gengar to go for the takedown! She's not trained to use it in any way, but she's still going to try to secure the area for herself and the Gengar even with that risk.
Janine Liberi	Danzo's help is appreciated as Janine starts trying to tear down the door. The breach in the seal is probably making alarms go off, so screw it. Catherine's winds becoming stronger, simply cutting through the metal and providing more for Danzo to employ until they're through the airlock and in the station proper. They're at the bottom, the target is at the top. And in between them, a lot of armed goons, probably starting to gear up and mobilize. The window for the element of surprise is shrinking. But luckily, Janine has a way to make the most of it in this short period of time. "Hey," she says to Danzo over the comms. "How fast are you? Because me, I'm pretty fast." She demonstrates this by rushing to the far end of the corridor they find themselves in. "Let's rush the upper floors before they even gear up to deal with us!" Catherine leaves a string of gold thread stretching between the floor and ceiling before Janine flies off at high speeds again. It stretches enough to be used as a foothold to turn corners without losing speed or to safely slow down. Janine charges through the pillar in this manner, leaving behind threads to mark her path, rushing through corridors and up stairwells to head straight for the Command Centre.
Amelris Belthrone	This place is going to get loud very soon if they don't do this correctly. Amelris, yes, is capable of stealth but in a place like this, he'll take Klaus' help on the timing to get past the man without TOO much immediate suspicion. The elevator move them to another level. He's warned of risks. That's fine. He have some ideas, himself. He acknowledges them. As asked, the Red Mage moves on, physically barring the door that Klaus went into as he asked, adjusting his suit for a moment then moving right on to his other target: the Life Support systems. The conversation on the radio prompts him to search into his possessions, DO he have a sort of sleeping agent that he could use for this? He thinks so, a sort of weakening agent that's used to, well, weaken people in battles after you spray it on them. Non-lethal, but certain to bring some letargy on somebody. That is, of course, if the Life Support systems have a slot for 'liquid to gas convertion', as Nova have suggested.
Damocles	The cameras on the outside of the station weren't unexpected, and don't bother Damocles too much. They're there to watch for things away from the station heading towards it, not for things already on the station. They aren't too hard to avoid, he just has to keep an eye out for them. They have to be shielded and extended, so he can alter has pathing and, if needed, use an illusion spell to blind them, creating the expected starscape in a dome around them. Getting into the station also isn't a concern for him, it's just a matter of walking to where he needs to be. Unlike the people inside, he doesn't have any other people to run into either, so it's mostly just a matter of getting to the right place and waiting for the right time. Damocles walks casually, not in any real rush. Without anything else to really do, he also idly sings to himself as he walks. /Fly me to the moon, and let me play among the stars.../
Danzo Katou	"Have you ever heard of a slow shinobi?" Danzo asks Janine. Her tone approaches humour. It's extremely rare, yet doesn't sound at all out of place for some reason. It's the kind of pleasant that feels like she should laugh a lot more than she ever does. "I concur. Our allies will not remain undetected for long. Seizing on opportunities with swiftness that prevents the enemy from responding, and creating chaos that can be take advantage of, are the basics of ninjutsu." She clearly means real ninjutsu, not magic wizard ninjutsu. When she takes off though, it is a full on ninja run. Actually, it doesn't seem to be a run at all. There's a sharp whirr, sparks fly from her heels, and then she blazes up the wall at eye-turning speeds. She literally skates up the walls, having no gravity to compete against, swerving up through hatches and along ladders with the barest motions of her hips and legs rather than pumping her arms. At some points, she disengages and shoots to opposite walls or passages with little clacks and bangs, weaving her way up the ducts essentially reserved exclusively for the firing of the weapon itself, rather than personnel management, until bursting into the stairwell that leads directly into the command center from kicking in an exhaust duck and elegantly twisting through the extremely narrow space. Then, the command room proper. Only one look is necessary to decide she'd rather not be shot by any of those weapons. She could survive several more direct hits than her human companion, certainly, but it'd only two or three to compromise her operational integrity. So she'll give them what they want. Concentrating on a high speed genpou isn't the easiest, but she can't start fires or sap walls here, with limited oxygen and critical construction designed to keep out the void. Instead, a full motion sensory experience erupts from the main bulkhead. Two points of molten plasma draw up both sides of the doors, sizzling and sparking as they trace molten lines through the metal, which then comes crashing down with an application of heavy force. Smoke billows into the control room, obscuring the attackers, but pulsing flashes of fire and the screaming of bullets and spanging of damaged metal make it clear they're under attack. There are no real attackers anywhere in the mix, of course, and Danzo isn't focusing on giving them more than the shadowy suggestions of presence, but the crack of automatic gunfire, the sparks of ricochets, and the smell of cordite and brass are unmistakable. That should point every gun in the room in the wrong way. The enemy that the foe is expecting is the one they will respond to without question. Intermediate misdirection. Since the bulkhead is, of course, still firmly attached, Danzo whispers "Keep your helmet on" into Janine's radio, and then whips a cluster of black 'grapes' into the room from between her fingers, exploding into pale grey gas that mingles in with the illusory smoke. "And breach theirs." she says.
Nova Terra	Nova enters through the docking port to find a number of guards waiting for her inside. She obviously hasn't been spotted yet, but getting past them will be difficult in this situation, given the close quarters. It's not ideal, even with her cloak. But. She has an idea that might just let her neutralize them without being completely discovered. It's a three part plan. First, Nova reaches out with her mind. Those weapons could present a problem. She doesn't want them even going off if she can help it. Which is why she uses her telekinesis to trigger the magazine ejection on the gyrojet rifles and pull the resulting ammo away. Of course, they probably have spares. Which is why... Part two. Nova throws one of her flashbang grenades into the group of guards. The grenade unleashes a pulse of light and energy, to not only disorient the guards but also disable any security surveillance watching the port. It'll likely look just like a malfunctioning camera. Suspicious, but not immediately indicative of an attack. Of course, the guards will recover shortly enough, so... Part three. Nova pushes off from a bulkhead, barreling towards the guards as a barely visible blur in the air. She's familiar with operating, even fighting in zero-g. And the ability to use her telekinesis on herself lets her maneuver through the tight quarters in ways others cant. Nova uses this to her advantage to close in on the guards, delivering suit-enhanced blows to each with the intent to knock them out.
Big Boss	Klaus creates a Deck, and plugs into the generator. He immediately gets a HUD, which shows that he has an avatar in cyberspace. Getting his avatar to the 'geneartor' node is easy enough, as is taking control, and he can surge lights whenever he wants. When he eventually decides to, however... He'll only get a few flickers before automated security steps in. Digital security programs, known as ICE, try to delete his avatar, fry his deck, and sever his connection. He'll have to fight them down, avatar-to-avatar, while keeping control of the power! Amelris barricades Klaus in, and then heads to Life Support. The maintenance man from before doesn't say anything, but does start following him, quietly, and watches as he puts the weakening poison into the liquid to gas, which starts gassing the station. People aren't going to want to breathe that in, but those without suits are especially in danger. The maintenance man curses, and then throws his wrench, propelling himself backwards to quickly try and get to an alarm panel and inform the whole station of what happened! Chuggins and Selene move in for an attack. Chuggins can quickly take out the worker - he's nothing - but the guard resists. He's about to try and shoot down the clear shamanistic spirit, when he's suddenly stabbed in the leg, causing a scream. Someone's going to hear that... And they're definitely going to hear him bat away Selene and offload three quick squeezes of the rifle at her, trying to blow her away as he bleeds and limps. The weakening poison affects him, causing him to almost collapse. Janine is fast enough that she can get a quick reaction on the guards inside the command center without being shot at first. An opening, if you would, to control the situation. Danzo, meanwhile, 'blows up' the bulkhead. Or at least, that's what the guards think, as the smoke and fire bursts in. Terrorists. They start firing at it, trying to be proactive even as the smoke floods their helmet. They move with /considerable/ training, floating around and avoiding hitting each other, but even then, they hit nothing but the bulkhead. If the smoke gets a chance to clear, they start calling out, trying to lockdown the facility immediately. The gas takes out the non-guards, who don't have helmets, dropping them at their consoles, especially in conjunction with the weakness poison. The helmeted guards are safer, but if their helmets are pierced, they're screwed. They take cover, trying to avoid gas and smoke, and piercing, one of them moving to sound the alarm officially across the entire station. Damocles can drop into the Command Center whenever he's ready, about the same time Janine and Danzo would arrive at earliest. Nova starts ejecting magazines. The guards first are shocked, and then move to find the disturbance, when the flashbang blasts them in and takes out security. Nova moves in for the unarmed takedowns, which take out a few who are shocked, but, she'll need to watch out for those slamming their guns into her suit, trying to batter her and break her helmet. But in the end, the gas has triggered, so they all go down fairly easily with her training. Now to get to R&D. The shooting has ocured, so the researchers are bunkering, as are the two guards in there with their own guns. There's all sorts of research files and weapon manufacturing that could be useful to Nova, here, if she'd like. But first she'll have to neutralize the weakened guards.
Klaus Ridell	Klaus rezzes in. His avatar manifests - it looks like one of the local programs, faceless, nameless. It is in all ways a normal part of the system, save for the compass emblem embedded in its chest. And also the Hawaiian shirt and shutter shades. That lasts for all of an instant. The moment he's spawned in, Klaus spins the compass emblem in his chest. Tron lines pour down around the faceless avatar. What emerges from the Tron lines is a tall suit of power armor in the style of a Space Marine. A hood hides the face but for the glowing green eyes that peek forth. Mighty pauldrons set across broad shoulders. Boots larger than a person's foot by far hold the immense weight of a chestpiece sized for a superman beneath a long cloth robe hem that flickers around the digital floor. More bits of cloth dangle off it as Klaus starts walking forward. Also, it is tie-dyed. With a pair of shutter shades sitting in front of the hood. The glowing eyes shift colors rapidly and out-of-synch, imitating the tie-dye of the robe and power armor. A ring with a skull on it forms around the power armor's finger. Klaus starts walking confidently forward. One hand rises. Power starts gathering in it as Klaus chants. The lines of the world twist and twitch. They stutter and skip. The Grid hiccups as static spurts around him. "-1222-12-1-1 -122-1-12-12 -122-122-1-1 -122-1-12-12 -1222-1-1-1-1 -122-12222 -1222-1-12-1 -1222-12-1-1" He closes his fist and crushes the orb of pulsating nothingness. And disappears. Klaus vanishes into a twisted, digital hellscape. It's only for a moment, only for an instant - a brief, unpleasant instant where his mind passes through corruption and corrosion, a layer of decompiled junk code and derezzed programs from corporate security tests by hired Deckers. He shuts his eyes as tight as he can to avoid looking at the half-rotting tentacles of 1 and 0. At the green wireframes half-formed, dragging themselves through an ocean of nonsense. At the gaping, yawning abyss that is where all decaying data goes, holes in the hard drives slowly failing across decades. He emerges in front of the central core. The eyes of the skull ring blaze to life, strobing through the rainbow. With one hand Klaus pushes his palm against the core. The hand with the ring closes into a fist. The strobing rainbow lights of the ring's eyes pulse as Klaus chants. "-122-1-12-1-1 -122-12-1-12 -1222-1-122 -1222-1-12-1 -1222-12-12 -1222-1-1-1-1 -1222-12-1-1" The garbage code. The deleted space. The broken wireframes, the hell of machinery that Klaus passed through. He crams a slice of it into the machine to disrupt its security. To stun it. To force a hiccup. To give him a moment to take control. "-122-12-1-1-1 -122-12-1-12 -122-12-12-1 -122-1-1-1-12 -122-1-1-122 -122-12-122" Rainbow light flows out of the palm into the core. The core begins to strobe like the ring. The ICE machines awaken. Not great, but managable. Klaus raises the hand with the ring. The ICE open fire. "-122-1-12-1-1 -122-1-12-12 -1222-1-122 -1222-12-1-1 -1222-1-12-1 -122-12222 -12222-1-12!" Rainbow bolts full of garbage data start blasting into the ICE attacks. Injecting garbage data into incoming blasts. Injecting garbage data into the incoming enemies. It's pure nonsense, disruptive hiccups, stutter, stagger. In between the blasts Klaus brings the fist holding the ring into the ICE and forces more of the energy in, more disruption, more stuttering, to take control of the programs and turn them back on each other.
Damocles	~In other words, hold my hand. In other words, baby kiss me~ Damocles casually walks up to the edge of the oversation window on the command center, right as the fighting breaks out. He leans down, kneeling a bit to lean over the glass, and with one heavy armored hand, knocks on the glass. Not hard enough to break it, but hard enough to create a resounding 'CLANK CLANK' in the command room. Anyone who looks over will see the hooded wizard, his glowing cyan eyes in a happy ^^ expression. A second later, he falls through the bulkhead in a flash of violet fire. He teleported, but only a couple meters, just to go from outside to inside, floating easily inside the command center. He stretches out a bit, reaching his arms out to his side. He's right in front of the glass window, so it's likely even the guards will hesitate to open fire for fear of a missed shot decompressing the room, but even if they do, Damocles has armor and shields to protect him. ~Fill my heart with song, and let me sing, forever more!~ ~You are all I long for, all I worship and adore.~ The fear of decompression is important to Damocles's plan, as he channels a subtle, but potent fear effect on the guards. Hidden in his booming singing voice are quiet whispers of chaos, designed to confuse the fear within the guards. Specifically, he tries to invert their fear of asphyxiation, making them momentarily panic under the belief that the -inside- of their helmet is the airless void, and they need to pull off their helmet to breathe again.
Janine Liberi	Even though Janine took off first, Danzo beats her via squeezing her way into more narrow routes. As she begins cutting through into the room, drawing every gun towards her, Janine peeks through the door in surprise. "Damn... that's a for-real ninja for you though." That's a lot of guns though, and she's not sure how long the construct can hold out. Janine backs up to get a running start before launching herself at the door at high speed. The moment before she would slam her head against it, Catherine kicks up a horizontal cyclone of cutting wind that bores right through, separating the doors from the wall and launching them inwards. Strings wrap around them and arrange them between Janine and the crewmen, creating a shield from any reactionary gunfire. And from behind the doors, an array of threads lash out, filling the room like a spider web. They wrap around helmets before snaking around guns and securing themselves with complicated knots. And then, a single, sharp yank on all of them. This at once pulls the guns away from their target, pointing at the roof, the floor, and off to the sides. But it also causes the string to grind against the helmets. To cut and crush until they are no longer airtight, to let the incapacitating gas from Danzo flood in and take them out. The moment Janine lands and the doors thud to the ground, the Command Centre is theirs. "You don't dawdle in the slightest, do you?" she asks Danzo, obvious mirth in her voice. "Good job." She gets on the radio and calls out. "The Command Centre is ours."
Amelris Belthrone	Amelris is not quite worried, the weakening potion is not potent enough to cause permanent damage to people. The biggest worry right now is that man that WAS following him and very much saw him do this thing to the Life Support system. The Red Mage is not used to Zero-G movement but at least, it being somewhat close to water that you can't easily swim in is helping him on this manner. When the maintenance man lojudly curses out, Amelris looks over his shoulder, grabbing on to the harder parts of the Life Support systems, launching himself out at the Mechanic, a fist first to aim at his cheeks, diving through the air like a streak to deliver a direct punch. The last thing he needs right now is that guy to ring out the alarm, they need to delay that for as long as possible.
Selene	That could have gone a lot better. Selene isn't exactly tough or skilled on her own, and she goes down like a sack of bricks that weigh significantly less than a sack of bricks. Her instincts are good enough to avoid getting shot square in the chest or face, at least, but she still takes a shot to the arm that has her screaming out that only adds to the noise. The Gengar also adds more noise to the mix upon seeing all of this going on. It lets out an unearthly noise as it descends upon the guard, bearing down on him with all sorts of shadowy fists aimed to beat him to a pulp. Unless he can extract himself from that, it's going to take Selene shouting at it to stop just short of turning him into a bloody mess. "So much for stealth.... Ach, butts. Okay, plan... hatever. Ow ow ow..." Selene sends out another Pokemon: A flowery bulbous lizard thing. The Ivysaur grunts lightly as the trainer climbs atop it, letting it handle the walking while she performs some quick first aid on that wound to try not to bleed out already. "C-come on, guys... We got a job to do. Gotta back up the rest of 'em, so keep your eyes peeled for... Whhhatever." She pats the Ivysaur's and Gengar's faces to reassure them (badly), and then they're headed off once more. The next destination: The COMMAND CENTER! Probably. She's not actually sure which direction it's in, but she can probably figure it out. "Just like we practiced, guys... Use them against each other!" If they run into guards, that mostly just means using the guards as flails against each other while keeping Selene covered from gunfire and other such threats. They can take it, but she can't!
Nova Terra	Going for her visor is a smart move on behalf of the guards. It's probably the most delicate part of her suit. Which is why any attempts to do so are met by a sudden burst of telekinesis send them flying away from the Ghost. The gas kicks in though, allowing her to quickly finish off the weakened guards. Nova then moves on, pushing off walls and bulkheads with her feet to propel her down the corridor and into the central pillar. From there it's a quick trip to the R&D lab. Nova doesn't enter immediately, instead pressing herself up against the wall beside the hatch opening. Reaching out with her senses she picks up on the scientists, as well as the guards inside along with their location. Nova reaches to her back, pulling her large canister rifle free. She's not sporting her usual high powered rounds this mission, unsure of how the station's structure would handle that kind of destruction. Instead she's using rounds with reduced firepower. It means they have less penetrating power and overall damage. But that's not an issue for what Nova has planned. Slipping through the opening into the R&D lab-still invisible and moving slowly enough to not leave a ripple-Nova aims her rifles towards the two guards. Specifically, their weapons. And with two shots in quick succession, she aims to knock those guns out of their hands. If successful, Nova decloaks with a wash of light, large rifle still aimed at the two guards, at which point she says, "You'd be smart to not resist any more."
Danzo Katou	Between Damocles and Janine, the situation is presumptive that the guards are going to be breathing in Danzo's special blend of secret Fuuma tranquilizing gas, and disarmed during the short period it kicks in. Though she watches out for stray bullets potentially fired by guns spinning around in microgravity, Danzo hops up onto the command deck herself once the smoke clears. That is, the real smoke. The scene of carnage dissolves away into nothing with a double clap of her hands, the loud noise shattering it like waking up from a dream. Smog and fire and spent casings and prone forms vanish as if they never were. "Swiftness is of the essence in sabotage. Making sure you enemy's eyes are in the place you want them to be is the essence of misdirection." she replies to Janine. She goes about confirming none of the guards have accidentally shot the console workers, each other, or themselves, then begins searching the knocked out personnel for the necessary cards or codes necessary to turn both keys on the control panel, figuratively or literally. This time, for some reason, she seems a little bit grim about it. Even more quiet and withdrawn than usual.
Big Boss	Klaus is quite possibly the scariest decker in space. And currently, the only decker in space, as he destroys ICE, takes control of the nodes, and wins a stupid minigame. But, black ICE, the deadliest ICE, starts coming in right as he triggers it. Which is when Nova shoots the gun out of the way of the guards. The guns are blasted out of the way, and as she takes them surrender, which they reluctantly accept... A scientist triggers the alarm throughout the station. But then, the power goes off. And on. And off. And on. One of the maintenance techs waits for something to happen, but nobody stops it, so he heads towards the generator. If he finds it barricaded, he's gonna get out a wrench and start trying to pry it open. Klaus needs to maintain control, if he's going to keep up the flickering long enough. Damocles and Janine combo to tear off helmets with a fear effect that forces the guards to tear them off, as well as slicing with threads that removes them and removes the guns. As they drop from the gas, the command center is secured. Danzo takes this time to start picking pockets, and finds the keycards necessary on, fittingly, the guy in front of the central panel. None of the guards have accidentally shot anyone else. They're too good at their job - if the group hadn't been as coordinated as they were, they'd probably have been torn apart by bullets. All it needs is to be swiped in, and it can be locked or unlocked. Fired or sealed. Amelris can't stop an alarm going off, but he can take out the mechanic with a direct punch, knocking him out as he skids backwards through the zero-g. He might want to go find Selene, now... Whose Gengar nearly killed the guy. He's all bloodied up, but she spares his life, as the last of the security starts to file in, but don't catch up to her. She can make it through the access tunnels towards the COMMAND CENTER, wounded. And there, people can start grouping up. The question is - what happens next? Especially as the last of security is coming for the command center.
Damocles	Once the control center seems to be in hand, Damocles raises his hands into the air, calling out, "Everybody! Fill my heart with song and let me...anybody? No? Well okay then." Damocles huffs, crossing his arm and he lumbers instead to the control console, and inspects it for a moment. It's got to be here somewhere. This is the control center, and there is always...Ah, there it is!" He presses a button on the control, and then leans down to put his mouth near a microphone. As he talks, his voice is echoed throughout the entire station, via the station-wide intercom system, broadcasting to every single corner of Icarus Station: "Attention all crew of Icarus Station: This is your new captain, Damocles speaking. We have taken possession of this station and its facilities, and are currently in full control. However, we have no interest in harming any man or woman aboard. If you lay down arms and surrender, you have my solemn oath that you will be treated fairly and with respect, as befits those defending their home and livelihoods from unknown aggressors. Allow me to repeat: We have won. We have control of all major systems. Stopping us is no longer an option. Surrender now, and you will not be harmed. We have no interest in any further violence."
Klaus Ridell	A few more seconds. Just a few more seconds. The black ICE spawns in. Klaus's hand is still on the core. The rainbow lines twist and writhe. The rainbow strobe of the ring pulses. He can't fight the black ICE. He's much too good at recognizing a deadly threat out of sheer necessity - knowing when to fight and when to run is crucial for someone who dives into ruins filled with Machina. He just needs to hold on for a few seconds. The black ICE's attack cycle starts. Klaus's strobelight eyes widen. A shot to the pauldroned shoulder twitches and writhes with damaged code. A piece of his avatar's been blown away. He falls to one knee from the pain, the agony of feeling your arm blown off without actually losing your arm. When he gets back to realspace the psychic shock will be intense. But no time for that now. Another shot, this time to the same hand, the hand with the ring. The ring de-rezzes with the hand. Another shout of pain. But he's got it, now. He's got what he needed. The timing. Klaus stands, in tremendous pain, and lets his body go on autopilot. Each shot from the ICE might as well be molasses. He's not superhumanly fast but his sense of timing is remarkable, and once he's got the timing on something this stupid, this automated, he can buy time all he likes. The shots come raining down only to find him not there, to find him moving around, sliding around, ducking, weaving. He takes a few more glancing blows - a piece of the other arm, a finger - but nothing severe. Nothing as serious as the hand and the shoulder. Just delaying, just delaying, until it really does feel like a maintenance short. He's counting the seconds in realtime, too. The timing's easy when you get it down. It's just seconds expanded outwards from the seconds in the Grid. Math. Just math. He can keep math in his head. He can keep track of two clocks. Easy. So he moves, and weaves, through the ICE's attacks, taking the moments as they launch to dodge, the moments as it shoots to weave. The attacks splatter against the core. Minor damage to the core, and nothing he cares about. The generator being damaged is perfectly fine by him. A few seconds go by in the real world. The lights finish flickering and just go out. The backup power will engage until the tech arrives to fix it. Klaus immediately releases the core and derezzes as a bolt of destructive data comes shooting right through him. He jolts awake and takes a sharp breath as brain dump kicks in, his eyes suddenly processing all the data he had previously been hooked into through his helmet. Microseconds turned into minutes come crashing into his mind. He clutches at his shoulder, at his arm, at his finger, biting down as hard as he can to avoid screaming. Hurriedly, Klaus stands. He removes the barricade on the door. He closes his eyes and vanishes through the Warp. Klaus emerges in the Command Center next to Damocles in his big tie-dye Power Armor. He falls to his knees with a loud klang and lets himself scream in pain, hitting the ground face-first clutching at his arms. Only after a few seconds of breathing and processing does he sit up and look up at everyone. The strobe-light eyes behind the shutter shades glow. "H-hi," he manages, "Mission accomplished."
Janine Liberi	There's no time to luxuriate on their victory. The heavy thwomp of boots coming towards them echoes throughout the station. Janine sighs, and shakes her head at Damocles as he pleads that the crewmen surrender. "If they surrender, they lose their jobs in their hyper-capitalist society the moment they touch back down on Earth, and that's if they're lucky. A megacorp like this might just kill them as an example to their other security forces. They're desperate." She points Catherine to the halls, and they are filled immediately with complicated arrays of string. They block the path, creating tight patterns that are a nightmare to squeeze through. And to make matters worse, they're razor sharp. Even the slightest brush can cut through a spacesuit. And as a final touch, Catherine blows the lingering gas spread by Danzo out into those very same halls. Anyone who gets cut now has a voided suit exposed to sleepy smoke.
Amelris Belthrone	The Alarm still goes off despite his best efforts. Not because of this engineer actually switched on the alarm but that came off from somewhere else. Still, launching like that to sock a direct hit on that guy WAS pretty cool all the same. The Red Mage snatch the wrench out of the air, spins it and look around his surroundings. There's a young woman that needs his help and he needs to get to her, as soon as he is able. Then Damocles speaks on the highspeakers. Well. That's... one thing done, he supposes. A part of his being is rather proud on hearing a very pirate-like demand of surrender. Grinning, Amelris leaps off away, after making sure the engineer don't like, drift into a dangerous situation and diving off into the corridors to find where Selene is crawling/flying through. At the mention that ther eis still people chasing her, Amelris tighten his grip on his wrench. He swears, he's going to have to find some way to lug around a rapier that don't look nearly as much a rapier theses days. A wrench will do, for now. Amelris dives into the maintenance tunnel to meet up with Selene and, hopefully, give her some backup if that is needed against whoever pursues her.
Selene	Selene doesn't look back as she heads into the access tunnels. There's guards somewhere vaguely behind her, but she's not worried about them or the pair she and her Pokemon (mostly her Pokemon) took down. All that matters right now is getting to the biggest, flashiest place of all: THE COMMAND CENTER. As she navigates the the access tunnels from atop the Ivysaur, though, she uses that time to keep the security on their toes. Taking out her Rotomdex, she... Remembers that it kind of took a beating the last time she used it against the cybersecurity of this world. "Easier this time. If you encounter any bad resistance, just bail outta there. We gotta get those doors screwed up to stall anyone trying to follow us." The little device Pokemon gets a pat on its face, and then she lets it get to work trying to take control of the doors to this location! As instructed, though, it'll evacuate itself if it encounters any Black ICE like last time. Selene, meanwhile, fishes out Pokeball #3! It's gray with blue spots, and she looks arund slowly for an ideal spot to bring it out. Not yet. With aMelris arund, she's feeling far more confident about not being shot, and she still needs that ace in the hole if things really go south. "Hi! Okay, I think we gotta go left, left, left, left, left, and then left. Or just this way." She blurts out, not quite sounding like someone who's just been shot in the arm. There's a noticeably bloody spot on said arm, though, although it's not dripping at the very least.
Nova Terra	The guards surrender. Good. The alarm goes off. Bad. Nova turns to look at the scientist that triggered the alarm, the optics of her visor staring at him as she asks with a tone of annoyance, "Really?" She swings her rifle around to aim at the scientist. But Nova doesn't pull the trigger, simply saying, "You're lucky we already control most of this place." As evidenced by the announcement made from the command center. "Or that would have pissed me off a lot." Nova floats over to one of the lab computers, keeping her rifle aimed in the general direction of the scientists and guards. She pulls a cord from her wrist display and finds a port on the computer to plug it in. She's no techie, so is just going to try and copy what she can. It can be examined later for anything of us.
Klaus Ridell	Nova mentions that her suit might get fried as Klaus warns them about the security systems. Klaus stumbles to his (powered armor) feet. He's obviously not in great shape. Every so often the whole armor shivers. Armored fingers shake and twitch as he reaches up to spin the compass on his chest. The armor disappears, leaving him with just the glowing skull ring, a Hawaiian shirt, the shutter shades, some awful white pants, a white undershirt, and some kind of keypad strapped to his arm. He fumbles over to the controls next to Nova and gives her a long look. Then he shakes his head, pulls a cord out of the keypad, and shoves it into the port beside her. He slumps to his knees again. Klaus rezzes in, unarmed but for the glowing strobe-rainbow skull ring, his pure white avatar in his ridiculous getup missing a shoulder, several fingers, a hand, and parts of his leg. The moment he locates whatever Nova's proxy is in the digital world, he's going to plant his feet, raise the hand with the ring, and start shooting anything that gets near while she downloads.
Danzo Katou	There are boots in the halls. Security rushing to the command center. Soldiers gathering up with soldiers, mounting their counteroffensive. Desperate to take back the station. Their one job. Their duty to their lord. Men who have nothing else, and so will die in the attempt if necessary. The room isn't fortified to repel a heavy assault; it's a space station. All that's between the Watch and the station's possibly hundreds of armed guards is a bulkhead, currently sealed by a lapse in the generator. Damocles is trying to reason with them, but Danzo, as much as she wishes it weren't so, knows that reason cannot reach the hearts of men who have nothing but their allegiances. The most she can do to preserve their lives is to finish the Watch's business here before they clash forces. They are the only lives here that are still in her hands. The men and women aboard the station, a paltry few compared to those involved in her own lord's orders, are the last lives that she can do anything to protect. Danzo has gone completely silent. Her face is a placid mask of no expression. Not simply held rigid, as a human would need to do, but bled and void of all emotion, leaving behind only the perfectly sculpted facade of her truly neutral, face. The one she would wear if she were completely deactivated. Her eyes are dull. Her motions stiff and robotic, going through the required movements without any spark of life. Like a robot. An automaton. A doll. It's easier that way. As a shinobi, the lord's orders are absolute. A shinobi is a tool who follows them. A wooden doll is a tool built to be a shinobi. The pilfered keycard is swiped through the console. Mechanical fingers flick switches one by one, rapidly moving across projected screens, gently and precisely pushing levers up their tracks. The entire sequence, executed by rote repetition, studied in the mission documents and committed to memory. The sounds of the charging capacitors and the mechanical movements of the aperture are completely tuned out. Danzo's voice is completely without its usual softness. It's barely even audible. "Thor cannon repositioning. Targeting solution generated: Tenochtitlan, Aztlan, Central America. Firing solution complete. Aztechnology asset: The Pyramid. Weapon safeties released. Fire procedure engaged." Big Boss had entrusted his orders to the one agent on the mission that he could trust to execute them without fail. Without interpretation. Without deviation. Without hesitation. To a shinobi, orders take precedence over even one's life. "Firing."
Big Boss	Danzo fires up the launch. The console beeps, first red, and then green, as the cards are slid through and the coordinates are chosen. The safeties and shutters have been destroyed. The clamps on the loaded Thor Shot unlock, but they wait the final signal from down below. ---- ARES LAUNCH BUNKER The bunker's under control. Outer Heaven put as many of their resources as they could towards a speedy control, intercepting them with sheer force and the skill of their leader. Big Boss stands, pushing aside a dead security guard off the console. His advisor, Ezra Sanson, stands beside him. The commander moves to start firing it up. "Boss, are you sure about this?" Sanson says. "You've lied to them. You told them you were just-" "I've said what was necessary. They would have attempted to prevent the launch. That's not acceptable." Boss takes his cigar in his hand, and takes a drag. "This world needs change." "Fine." "We have to make sacrifices, Sanson. None of these people are able to escape the cycle without our help." "Fine, fine. Just launch it." Big Boss steps up to the console, tapping at the screen. The screen goes red, and then asks for rough coordinates. He enters them, and then presses launch. The screen goes green. ---- ICARUS STATION The Thor Shot finally releases. Alarms signal throughout the station. The massive rod from god drops, and then, as it breaks orbit, starts to propel itself at a rapid velocity. It's headed for Central America.
Big Boss	AZTECH PYRAMID, AZTLAN, CENTRAL AMERICA A million lights flicker in one grand golden pyramid. A million souls. Glazed and glassy walkways allow people to step store to store, elevators take them floor to floor, through hundreds of stories. The arcology is most impressive. The light from the heavens pierces atmosphere. People point, wave, and then, their story ends. The man working at the cubicle, trying to beat deadline, waiting to return home to his family. His story ends. The teenager flirting with the barista, who's trying to get him to buy something, desperately sighing. Their stories end. The corporate bigwig trying to design the latest pestilence in a conference call with several others. Greed on their mind. Half a dozen stories end. The woman chained to the altar, bleeding, as robed cultists move to end her life, empowering a magiacl ritual. Their stories end. In an instant, stories both innocent and malicious end, but for what reason? Did a million lights have to be snuffed out? Big Boss believes they did. Because only then, can they forge a new story from the ashes. One better for the world. One that can create a billion more. ---- ICARUS STATION The impact can be seen from space. The massive mushroom cloud in Central America flares up. A massive ash and dirt cloud blows up from all the pollution of the city. They've done it. They've made a change.
Big Boss	The speech goes live. A few guards /do/ surrender, but the rest burst into the hall, and get sleep-gassed, wrenched, and other things. Selene takes control of the doors after some run-ins with standard ICE, Rotom doing the job well but having to duck out when Black ICE comes into play. The group orients around the Command Center. Nova, meanwhile, downloads data. Lots of Ares information, safely secured in space because nobody can get to it. This will come in handy. Especially as Klaus protects her from Black ICE. But how will they react to the launch?
Janine Liberi	Janine watches from the windows with the air of someone who expected this. The mushroom cloud visible from space, the permanent crater they've left. How many people just died? How many deserved it? She lingers at the window for a moment, before turning and walking over to Danzo. She can't see the expression the ninja is making behind her helmet. Glad she accomplished the mission? Upset at having to do the act. Just stiff and robotic? Janine can't say. But she does raise a hand and pat her on the shoulder. "Nice shot," she says, before walking away. Not enough, is her answer. Until this whole system is dismantled, the amount of people who died is 'not enough.' "Pack it in and get ready to leave everyone. Mission accomplished," she says over the radio.
Klaus Ridell	Just because Klaus is backing Nova up doesn't mean he can fight the Black ICE. He's a better distraction, a better target, than a fighter. The Wyrdfire bad-code flung about in every direction does more damage to the area than to the ICE. It's purely a distraction, forcing their self-defense routines to focus on him rather than on Nova. At the last of it he just dives in and tackles one of them in what would probably be a suicidal move if it wasn't for the sudden discharge of the Thor Cannon. The sheer number of alarm klaxons roaring through the digital space is enough of a distraction for Klaus to blast the Black ICE directly in the core with his ring before he gets completely murdered. And he still gets a chunk of his stomach punched through for his trouble. But once Nova's proxy de-rezzes, Klaus does the same. The slump becomes another agonized scream at Klaus doubles over, clutching at his stomach, grabbing at his arms again, shaking furiously. One brain dump is painful enough. Two brain dumps is exquisite agony. He falls over on the floor, curled up in a ball, twitching. It takes him a few seconds that feel like hours for his brain to catch up with his body, to remember that, no, he has not sustained Very Major Physical Damage, that he has not taken Immense Amounts of Bodily Harm, and to settle in and let him calm. He'll be shaking for a bit, but at least he didn't take too many more hits. He sort of just... He just looks at Danzo for a long, quiet moment, hand on his arm, watching her. Then, he says, "W-we live with the choices b-because we don't have to live with the consequences." His smile is slightly underlined by the twitch of his mouth. It's a quiet, reassuring sort of thing. How he feels about the Thor Cannon's launch is irrelevant. He's not the one who pushed the button. He's not the one who has to carry it. But she thought it was for the best. Or Big Boss did. They thought this was the best way for the world to change. Millions(!) spent for billions(!!). Millions spent so the world could start moving again. So he's giving her the smile he thinks she needs. The support he thinks she needs. As he picks himself up off the ground properly and wobbles over, he says, "But..." "...are you okay?"
Damocles	At the time the firing controls were given, Damocles happened to be standing at the nearby command console, close enough to observe what Danzo was doing. Ironically, he had been pondering something very similar himself, using the firing codes they pilfered to -threaten- destruction of Aztechnology if the guards didn't stand down. That was the follow-up plan to the guards who refused to surrender. He watches the shinobi key in a firing solution, and it becomes pretty clear what she's doing. He has no idea if it's sanctioned or not, but he imagines it must have been. Selene got the firing codes and someone else got the keycards. Only Big Boss would have been able to put all those elements together unnoticed. Maybe she's going to threaten a firing like he was planning? That's also unlikely. A threat is something that needs to be loudly announced, but she's doing this quietly. So, it also occurs to Damocles that he's in a position to stop it, if he acts fast. And may in fact be the only one who could. He doesn't, of course. Instead, he raises a hand to his hood and gently lowers it, exposing his face to the soft, artificial lighting as he looks out the window, watching the weapon fire. Big Boss isn't the only one who believes change is a necessity. All those pieces, all those lives, all those perceptions, all balanced on the single, thinnest threads! Look how easily it all crashes down. The smallest of moves, a single finger, can remake an entire world. And if you think that's the biggest boom to come, you haven't been paying near enough attention, my boy.
Amelris Belthrone	Amelris waves briefly, sliding into the tunnel to give at least some cover to Selene, giving her a nod. "Hi! Alright, let's get into cover and I'll look it over." The Miqo'te says, keeping note on the blood spot on her arm. She's... in shock? Or at least, she's running on wild adrenaline right now. She's going to come on down soon and THAT's gonna freaking sting for her. "Hey, sit tight, it's going to sting for a bit." When they do reach a cover, he stops her to get a look at the wound, brandishing out a hand over it to unload a trickle of soft, warm lights into the wound. It's a quick, firm burst of it, working on regrowing the wound and push the bullet out with his magic. Then... something happens. The station shakes, he have the /worse/ feeling running down his spine. "What in Twelves was that...?" He stops, in middle of his healing to peer out at one of the portholes of the station, the ones that was staring out into the light of the stars, now peering down at the Earth. The flash of light. The visible mushroom of the impact. Amelris stops, his eyes wide and his mouth, gaping.
Selene	It takes a while for Selene to actually see what's going on. With her attention divided between navigation, trying not to make Amelris' job too hard, and keeping an eye out for the guards? She has plenty of things competing for her attention that she's all too willing to ignore that ominously blaring alarm system. "Right, right. Whoa, that's some shiny... Whoa, that feels weird. Like earwax, but in rev..." Her color commentary on Amelris' healing magic forcing the bullet back out of her arm stops as she notices the rumbling around her when the ordinance is released and the sight of it hurtling down to the planet below. That's much harder to ignore. Watching from a window, she listens to her allies, the words of congratulations, the long pauses that even come from herself... And then she finally cheers. "Alright! Go team! What'd we hit, anyway?" She sounds as enthusiastic as ever, although she's a fair bit slower on actually getting it out for once.
Nova Terra	Nova is no where near the computer expert that Klaus seems to be. She can barely manage a scp * ghostDrive:storage on the lab computer. She could probably pull some login credentials from one of the scientists minds if she needed access. But an active defense program? A bit out of her league. Thankfully she has Klaus to assist. Nova is busy watching the progress bar on her wrist screen fill up when she gets an update through her radio. Observing from nearby, her ship is reporting the firing of the orbital cannon and the results on the surface below. Nova's had to launch a number of nukes in the past. But they've mostly been used against military forces. Still, Still, she has had her fare share of innocents getting caught up in her missions. Or so she assumes from her lack of real remorse for those that just died. Of course, it helps that she didn't know them personally... And that many of them belonged to a pretty crappy corporation. As the data finishes being retrieved and Klaus makes his exit once more, Nova says, "Thanks." She unplugs her cord, "Hopefully there's some good stuff in this." Nova pushes off the console, starting to float back towards the lab's exit. She keeps her gun trained on the scientists and guards as she says, "Well, this is where we get off. Lucky for you, we have no need to kill you. Plus I'm amused at the thought of how you're going to explain what happened here to your bosses. Though hell, they may give you a bonus." Light washes over Nova as she disappears once more, ducking out of the hatch and beginning to make her way towards the outer rings once more. Time to get out.
Damocles	When the others move to retreat, Damocles decides to hang around the station for a little bit. He can teleport across worlds and dimensions, so he doesn't really need their ship to secure his exit. Plus, he has one last thing he wants to take care of before leaving. He moves to the middle of the control room, casually slipping one of his gauntlets off as he goes. He secures the gauntlet on his belt, and pulls a typical, small knife from the belt instead. "Fill my heart with song, and let me sing forevermore. You are all I long for, all I worship and adore..." He brings the knife to the exposed palm of his hand, and in one lightning fast motion, drags the edge against his flesh, tearing open the palm of his hand from index finger to thumb. There are many less painful places to cut yourself if you need to draw blood, but for this spell, the pain is as important as the blood itself. Droplets of blood go flying in all directions, the lack of gravity making the droplets collect in crimson spheres that float in all directions. Most splatter against the floor, flying in the direction the knife cut. As the wound bleeds, he carefully trails the blood into the air, using a finger to maneuver it into position, weaving a careful pattern in the air with his blood as the paint and the Zero-G air as the canvas. "In other words, please be true. In other words...I..love you..."