Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

[Pale]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

The mage known as Pale had separated from the group some time ago.. soon after Tsuki had run into her.. difficulties. She hadn't made it onto the transports..and in fact, hadn't been seen for some time. Doubtless people figured she was resourceful enough to escape on her own.

Still no word as the hive exploded, save a burst of static across the shared radio frequency. Keen eyes might pick out a single flare detaching from the explosion, but easily mistaken for debris..

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

Grave began to move towards the forum as well. He sighed, trying to think about the situation. Where's Burrito? And what about Siphon? Both commanders were out of the picture, at least for now. Copper was ok, just like Shrike. John - no longer alive, but that didn't seem to stop him. Sparky... Eh, maybe he survived. Pale - apparently MIA. Grave hadn't seen her for a while. Tsuki... She suffered from a shock. Grave wasn't very good at social interactions and tended to be quite brutal, but after thinking for a while, he decided that the hacker may still be feeling bad. He opened a private channel, trying to contact Copper. "Oy, bloodsucker. Can we talk?"

 

[Copper]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

((Glad to see you checking in, Pale, even if it's just to post being MIA.))

Copper was leaning back against the seat for the time being, eyes closed. She was alternately taking stock of the situation, who they needed to try to locate, what else needed to be done, and hoping that nothing else would decide to go wrong before they reached home. Or after they reached home for that matter. Hearing Grave's voice, she opened one eye and brought her radio around to fiddle with it and match the channel he was on.

"I read you, Grave. What's up?"

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

Grave sighed. He was beginning to dislike the idea. 'I'm supposed to be Evil, goddammit! Now it seems that I actually care... Oh Hell, I'm also fighting this war. Screw dignity.' The warrior spoke in a calm, clear tone of voice. Grave would rather die than sound nervous. "Listen. I'm not sure if I'm right, but I believe that most girls would be in a rather poor mental state after a "love" affair with something best left undescribed. Honestly, I'm not sure if Tsuki's really ok. I don't know her well and I suck at being nice to people, so I figured that you should keep an eye on her and help her if necessary. You've been friends for quite a while, right?"

 

[Copper]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

"No, you're probably right. Something like that is not exactly bounce back and be on your way kind of stuff but having a time limit against exploding death makes it hard to think about anything other than getting the hell away from it. Once we get back to the forums, I'll check on her. And don't worry, I won't tell her it was you that told me to." He might actually hear the smile that's pulling at her lips as she says that but he can hopefully tell that he can trust her to not tarnish his reputation. "Even if you don't know her all that well, though, that doesn't mean you can't ask after her. Sometimes even just the attempt is appreciated."

Actually, she might, if she can manage something private, talk with Tsuki before they get back, but that all depended on how quickly they could fly there and if the opportunity came up.

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

Copper's remark about reputation didn't really amuse Grave. He was aware that the vampire could read his action as a sign of affection. Still, it hurt his pride, even though he knew it was a joke. "Tch. I'll keep that in mind... And I'll try not to screw up when my help will be needed. Anyway, we should probably notify the HQ about our current situation. We don't want to be shot down, right?"

 

[Copper]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

"You haven't so far. No worries." The warrior did bring up a point and she really didn't feel like lugging Siphon to the gates if they didn't have to. And it would probably be a good thing for Tsuki and Shrike to hear this, too."All right. I'll call it in. Gonna switch back to the local channel."

Fiddling with the radio again, she swapped back to the channel the forum itself used. Unfortunately, she wasn't up on the protocol for calling things in. They were just going to have to deal with it and she'd face any consequences later. "Yo, this is Copper from Alpha Squad calling in. I've got four ships headed your way and I'm requesting space to park 'em. Two of them are commandered from the enemy, so don't shoot 'em, okay? You can radio Tsuki and Grave, they're the ones flying 'em. Shrike's in the other single man and the larger ship has our pilot, Sheppard, myself, and Siphon, my... Crap, what was Siphon's rank again? "C.O. I'm also requesting a couple medics and a pallet if you can swing one. And I have a feeling I'm going to need to talk to somebody in charge." Yeah, she was not looking forward to that. One c.o. missing, one a statue, three squad members that were in various states of undress, not to mention John's chopper being in pieces, and news of new threats. She checked the inner pocket of her jacket. Good. She might have enough cigarettes to get through this...

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

John only briefly spoke to Copper and loud enough to be heard on the radio. "ETA to the forums is ten minutes at current speed, that's assuming we..... ah shit."


In the rear sensors, six more darts came screaming in, opening fire at the transport. John was able to dodge them, but couldn't do so forever.



Then something strange happened, something else swooped down from in front of them, another single dart. It swung low over the transport, and then opened fire.... on the enemy darts! The new dart scored three kills before the other darts even realized they were being shot at, and then began a semi-dog fight that allowed the transport to gain precious ground. Then a voice came over the radio, one they might have hoped, semi-not hoped to hear again.

"I thought perhaps you would function better without those darts chasing you, yes? Make your break for where your landing, I'll take these three out."

The voice definitely belonged to Sparky, and he sounded pretty sure he could take all three remaining darts even though he no longer had the advantage of surprise.

 

[Tsuki]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

Oh. More darts. Bad ones. Tsuki thought she should probably help, but then Spark was on it. He was clearly competent enough to handle it, and the hacker would just end up as a meat sack to be shot at anyway. How much longer before she could get to take a shower? She had been defiled and was horribly horribly dirty.

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

Grave really wanted to participate in the fight, but he knew that he'd be no match for the other pilots. He didn't have as much experience. Grave switched to public channel again. "I hope that you know what you're doing."

 

[Copper]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

Copper immediately gripped whatever she could to keep from getting jostled around during the evasive manuevers. "Christ! Mr. Wizard, get us the hell out of here," she quipped to John, immediately getting back in touch with the forum.

"Hey, guys? Change of plans. We might be coming in a little hot here, so can we hurry up with the landing clearance, maybe? And provided he doesn't get shot, we'll have one more joining us. Just let the rest of the team land okay...Damn persistent bastard wraith.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

Sparky moved in for kills, and fired on one of the other darts, taking it out of the picture fast. That left two, one of which engaged him, the other gunning for the transport.


Sparky saw this and quickly took out the second dart, moving in to kill the final dart, firing his shot off and blasting it from behind...

but not before the dart unleashed a single screaming shot, heading for the engine sections of the transport, slightly off center and wobbly from being cut off in mid discharge. Growling, he accelerated roughly towards the transport on an intercept angle.


Just as John had opened his mouth to warn the others to hang on, the rear visual showed Sparky's dart move between them and the blast, the energy blast smashing into the dart's engine pod, turning half of it dark. For a moment, it seemed everything was fine... until the dart began a sickening nose dive, wavering slightly. It was a moment before they realized the dart was heading right for the ground at over three hundred kph. If it impacted, there was no way Sparky could survive it, and the darts didn't seem to have an ejection module at all.


John's eyes widened, and he spoke to Copper very low. "I think we're going to lose that dart., impact in less than thirty seconds."

 

[Copper]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

"Okay, if we keep this thing, we're getting it new shocks." Honestly, the idea of getting thrown around wasn't all that worrisome to the vampire, but there was their "cargo" to think about and she didn't want to have to figure out how to glue anything back on before he unfroze.

"If you've got an idea on how to fix that, do it. I'm good in a pinch, but I ain't that good." Maybe if she were a master at some of the other disciplines, maybe she'd have a shot at it, but as it were, defying gravity was not where most of her abilites lay.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

"I've got nothing."



Copper's message finally got a reply. "Copy that Copper, your clear for landing on strip two, repeat, clear for landing on strip two. Good thing you finally told us, we were getting ready to shoot you down with flak. Medics are standing by, just get here in one piece. HQ out."

 

[Tsuki]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

"Sparky!" Tsuki said, coming a bit out of her depression. With hardly thinking, she just acted, stearing the Dart over Sparky's falling one. She really hoped this would work. She activated the storage beam to attempt to try and pull out the pilot from the dart below, hoping, in an ironic twist, that the beam that had kidnapped Siphon would save their new Wraith friend.

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

Grave wasn't able to anything on time - the controls were still partially a mystery for him. He had no choice but to observe. However, when he noticed the stunt that Tsuki pulled, he couldn't contain his emotions. "Hell, that was some good thinking!" He didn't realize he spoke that into the communication device.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

Tsuki's dart sprung the beam forth, and then cut off, her dart angling away from the damaged dart.... and seconds later she watched as the dart Sparky had been flying smashed into the ground hard, exploding in a fireball visible for miles.

Ten seconds til impact. That was how long Sparky knew he had to try and pull out of the nose dive, insufficient time to execute the maneuver he wanted. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a dart swing low by him, and he was prepared to try firing when he noticed the slightly different color to it. "How... what? One of the modified.... what is she... HAHAHA."

He started laughing when he saw the beam spring out toward him, the simple solution of it all hysterically funny to him. To be saved by one of the devices he had despised for it's captive usage was ironic as hell. Then he thought no more as the beam placed him into storage.



An instrument reading suddenly popped into being on Tsuki's controls, indicating the presence of a single bio-sign within the storage module's memory. Given that it hadn't been there before her stunt, it was safe to assume that her attempt had been successful.



John watched the stunt eyes widening as events unfolded. "Wow, that was just... wow. I want one of those things now."

 

[Copper]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

Copper actually hadn't been watching Sparky's dart, not quite willing to bear witness to that. She was getting ready to radio back to the forum when she suddenly snapped her head up, hearing Grave cheering. She had just enough time to see the beam fading from view beneath Tsuki's craft.

"Way to go, Tsuki!" Of course, she didn't care if she was over the general channel or not. "Tell me you got him! Tell me you got him!" She let out another cheer at the affirmative. "You go, girl!" She let out a triumphant "Whooo!" into the radio as well, laughing afterward.

"Yeah, good luck getting that away from the top brass. After that helicopter stunt, they might not let you have another one," she teased John. "Base says come in on strip two," she relayed, also taking a minute to share that info with the other three pilots, in case they'd missed it in the excitement.

 

[Tsuki]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

"Ah, th- thank you, I got him, I'm pretty sure," Tsuki replied sheepishly over the radio. She was really quite surprised it worked. Now the only problem was figuring out how to get Sparky out of the containment thingy.

With Sparky safe, she turned toward where ever strip 2 was.

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Crashed Hive- Mountains east of TP forums.

Grave moved after Tsuki. He wasn't quite sure where to go either, so he let others lead the way. "Nice job, girl. I would have never come up with something like this... You're our brains."