Aberrant: Trans-Dimensional Explorations - Trans-Dimensional Explorations

[SkyLion]

"Well we sure as hell better talk to some of those Mil-Int types because we most certainly need to know. I would say this definitely counts as critical information for our mission."

[Rorx]

"I agree, you do need to know what information we have from recons. Unfortunately there isn't much. I mentioned Dr Blue earlier because he is the first Empowered to have got here that can go invisible, and I thought that perhaps if he could bestow it or share it with a Brandt then it would improve his or their chances of getting through. We did have a very stealthy, but unable to go invisible, Empowered try, but he was still detected and targetted by the highguard ship."

"I've already mentioned the intangible guy, who was pretty useless, but then he had no military, nor even combat training much and was unable to provide any useful detailed information. From his description they could have been in spacesuits, but it is perhaps more prudent to assume some form of powered armour. Since they emerged to take on someone who was obviously immune to normal attacks he assumed that they knew what they were doing and would be able to affect him despite his intangible form and fled the area as soon as he could."

"The only telepath we have here with the range to try to scan and/or read them is too scared to do so, and his associate with ESP doesn't have the range to reach the ship from a safe distance."

"That's the results of the Empowered attempts at recon so far. As I've mentioned I was waiting for the Defender to finish healing before we attempted to do a long phase under ground to come up inside the ship to do a brief recon as a method for (hopefully) bypassing their detection and targetting systems. Our more mundane methods have garnered the maps and photos of the location and the ships that you have before you now."

"Our major problem has been the lack of anyone with instanteous transport powers that could bypass the highguard ship inorder to obtain information from close to or inside the ship. However, you arrival has solved that issue, at least for as long as you are here this time. So when did you want to hit the Caribean ship?"

[SkyLion]

"Zhenglai here is a telepath and as for stealth, well..."

Esteban vanishes into thin air before Nathan's nose. It is so abrupt and sudden as to be startling. A voice from behind Nathan whispers into his ear.

"Optical camoflague..."

So when did you want to hit the Caribean ship?"

"How about now?"

[BlueNinja]

As Paul discovers, the injuries to Defender are a lot worse than they originally appear. (ie, Aggravated damage) It's not just the burns, but also a high level of radioactive particles that have been trapped in the blisters of the burns that his body has been slowly processing away. But Paul's healing still manages to clear away about half of the burns. "The light of good can clean away any burns caused by the dark light of evil!" Def cries, leaping from his bed. He looks himself over, then gives Paul a hearty (and almost bone-cracking; take 1 Bruised) handshake. "I am free of pain, and ready to deliver a heaping portion of the bitter fruit to these villains! When do we leave?"

The Colonel frowns, then nods. "I had forgotten about it. The nova in question was a civilian, a writer of some sort. He left here to try and help coordinate a survivor exodus from Los Angeles." He shakes his head and looks at Esteban seriously. "No one else was close enough to see, and if you have any experience in law enforcement, you know how jumbled an eye-witness account can get. He saw some kind of mechanical thing exiting the ship, and ran for his life. The Americans think it was one of the aliens in survival gear; I think it was something like a bomb-disposal robot." He looks over at some of the other military people still talking to Caliente and Frio. "You can try asking the Swedes if anyone has gotten a better view of the aliens. But if she," he gestures at Patricia, "was on board one of their ships, she probably saw a better alien than any of us did."

[Rorx]

"Nice one Esteban, but does it cover IR and UV? I suggest that while the Colonel gets together whatever troops and equipment he thinks we may need, along with any you guys may request, we go and get some coffee and snacks until action time." ::biggrin

"Perhaps Ms Knowles can fill us in on what she saw on-board the other ships while we eat?"

[SkyLion]

Nice one Esteban, but does it cover IR and UV?

"Si, against any part of the spectrum I can see, which is quite a bit..."

[Alex Green]

Paul shakes his hand and says,

"Ow, watch it there, you're pretty strong... Wait-a-moment. You are pretty strong. Spaceworthy too." ::idea *I found someone else who could carry the BFG is Brandt can't.*

"I'm not sure when we leave, but it'll be soon. We're sending three teams out after them." Paul changes his mind about burdening the Defender with all the details and continues, "Third team gets the hard part. We're going to raid the downed spaceship. We'll be confronting them face to face inside their own ship. The air is unbreathable. Most of the novas can't go."

"Ah, I was hoping you'd join us?" ::sly

[BlueNinja]

Patricia nods to Nathan. "They're big, ugly, and are either part machine or really dependant on them. One of them grabbed me as I was leaving the second ship through my portal, and these guys," she gestures as Zhenglai, Esteban, and Brandt, "helped me get free before the bomb went off. At least, on board their ship, they don't need any kind of full-body suit or anything. And their ship really, incredibly, stinks."

Defender grins broadly at Paul, and gives him a comically gentle clap to the shoulder. "How could I not join you? These villains have brought new meaning to the term 'devastation,' but the Defender of Justice cannot stand idly by and let them go unlearned in the meaning of the term 'collateral damage!' Are any of your friends joining us in the assault?"

[Alex Green]

Defender grins broadly at Paul, and gives him a comically gentle clap to the shoulder. "How could I not join you? These villains have brought new meaning to the term 'devastation,' but the Defender of Justice cannot stand idly by and let them go unlearned in the meaning of the term 'collateral damage!' Are any of your friends joining us in the assault?"

Paul nods and says,

"Most of them. The ones who can't function inside will shoot down the other ships. We have this massive gun some super-smart type built to take down spaceships. Better still we have a pre-cog who says their shields will be down, if we time it right. Shaping up to be a bad day for the bad guys."

"And you and I aren't done yet. I only cleared up about half the damage. In a few hours we'll try again."

Paul rotates through the link to everyone,

*I've put the Defender of Justice back on his feet. And his wounds were seriously nasty. If they're representative of the alien's weapon technology we're going to have problem. Good grief that took a lot of juice to deal with, and I'm not even done yet.*

[Rorx]

" Being a telepath perhaps Zhenglai would be willing to give the information that Ms Knowles has, and any other relevant information you have to those few of us joining the boarding, and the briefing officier for the troops accompanying us?"

"From the smell was anyone able to estimate what the atmosphere on the ship is? It will affect what weapons we need to equip the troops with, especially if it won't support combustion like our standard O2-N2 one."

[SkyLion]

"Methane. Yeah I know...the aliens breathe farts," the spaniard says, and his heavy latin accent somehow brings more humor to the matter of fact statement.

[Alex Green]

Paul sends,

*Oh, and someone needs to bring gear to get an air sample. Knowing their natural environment might help us to use their nature against them.*

[Shade Sentinel]

*I can take care of that. Having a matter creator has its uses Dr. Blue. I will provide the equipment, which should last several hours...if not longer.*

[Rorx]

"Methane, eh Esteban. Thats not too bad, it shouldn't effect any projectile weapons. I'll be able to tell the exact composition of the atmosphere once we get aboard. A side effect of being able to alter things on the molecular level has been the ability to identify the chemical composition of something from more than 100m."

"If we could get the Oxygen to Methane ratio up to 7 to 1 then the mixture would become explosive itself. It is also likely to be toxic to these Meklar."

[Rorx]

Nathan gazes over at the BFG.

"Its a shame I haven't managed to extend my perception to the molecular level. Then maybe I could have examined your new weapon well enough to create a duplicate or two."

"Oh well, if we survive this it will be something to work towards."

[BlueNinja]

A few hours later, the various military forces have (grudgingly) worked together. Patricia helped them bring through a few firefighting air tanks from a Mexican naval frigate, and six soldiers (3 Mexican, 2 US, 1 Swede) are armored up, masks in place, waiting before turning on their air supply. Then, prepared, Zhenglai waits for Brandt to be ready, and opens a gate to a rocky beach somewhere on Puerto Rico. Stepping through, he helps Brandt set up the gun, and they target the unsuspecting Meklar ship above. The control screen shows it as a red dot hovering above the planet, and in about thirty seconds the firing button lights up. When the beam goes off, it's almost anti-climactic on the surface, but about half a second later, a light like an extra-bright star glows in the sky above them for a few seconds. The weapon beeps, and the screen displays "Target Destroyed. Recharge Time:" and a count down from ten minutes ticking away.

In this world's Las Vegas, the military men are consulting the remaining cameras and sensors they have, communicating with the other resistance forces around the world. The Captain chosen to lead the military men steps over to Mask. "The one in orbit above India just turned, and started moving towards the Caribbean. The other one, in the southern Pacific near Australia, isn't moving yet. And the one above the downed ship hasn't, of course, moved. I recommend we hit them now, while waiting for your fancy gun to reload. While we still have the element of surprise."

Patricia nods to Mask, and forms her warp, white light shimmering, ready to transport the soldiers into danger. "Our portals should be about six feet apart, and we should be in a storage room. Out the door, to the right, should be their engineering spaces, if these ships follow those blueprints Zhenglai gave us a month ago." She smiles, her face taut with anticipation, and as the soldiers turn on their air tanks, the white light washes over them in a blink.

Defender claps Mask on the shoulder, fully healed a few minutes ago thanks to Paul, and waves a hand almost imperiously. "Come, my secretive friend! It is time to drag these invaders out into the sunlight and shine on them the force of justice!"

((According to the information the Psylons gave the group, which is of course shared around by now, the scout ships consist of four decks, and about 200 meters long, about 60 wide. You'll be emerging in a storage room (you hope) a bit further back from the halfway mark, on the second deck, about twenty meters from the engine room. Other points of possible interest, assuming similar configuration, are: the bridge, located on the third deck, almost all the way forward; weapon rooms, all located on the first deck, spaced across front to back on the centerline; shield control or generators, on the third deck just forward of the engines; and the rest of the ship seems to be mostly storage, crew quarters, or unknown. The ship should have a crew of about 30. The Meklar of the Psylon world had access to a sort of molecular replication technology, that could take base elements and combine them to a known template, that the Meklar used to construct replacement pieces by recycling the broken ones. The main downside is that virtually all of the really cool equipment (weapons, shields, engines, replicators) are probably too large to fit through a warp, though giving them a quick once-over is possible if you guys want to take the time/detour.))

[Shade Sentinel]

Simon will create his warp when the location is as confirmed as it can be. Once opened, he will activiate his force field and follow the defender into the gate, ready to engage the enemy.

"After you Defender..." He mutters as he follows the Nova into the warp.

[Alex Green]

Paul takes out his gun, attunes his gear, and goes invisible before the gate opens with the comment,

"I'm going to hover near the ceiling. No warning shots please."

He'll 'let' Defender take point on this one.

[SkyLion]

Esteban gets a mischevious almost wicked look on his face and asks the assembled strike team,

"Any requests you'ld like to see for my war form or should I use my imagination?"

He pauses then adds in jest, "and no Gozer the Destructor will *not* manifest as the Stay-Puffed marshmallow man..."

[Rorx]

Nathan attunes his gear and takes on the aspect of his Osmium alloy ring, before replying to Esteban:

"You know you want to really,... but he wouldn't fit through the gate."

He then steps forward to follow Mask and Paul through.

[Alex Green]

Esteban gets a mischievous almost wicked look on his face and asks the assembled strike team,

"Any requests you'ld like to see for my war form or should I use my imagination?"

Paul says,

"The Alien from 'Aliens' would be nice and ironic. Maybe confusing to them too and that'd be a good thing."

[Rorx]

Esteban gets a mischevious almost wicked look on his face and asks the assembled strike team,

"Any requests you'ld like to see for my war form or should I use my imagination?"

Nathan pauses at the lip of the gate and turns back to say to Esteban:

"It's a shame you probably can't do the special ability, but since they're cyborgs a good old fashioned Rust monster could have been interesting" ::biggrin

[BlueNinja]

Simon will create his warp when the location is as confirmed as it can be. Once opened, he will activiate his force field and follow the defender into the gate, ready to engage the enemy.

"After you Defender..." He mutters as he follows the Nova into the warp.

Defender boldly leads the way, striding into the ship through the warp, boldly going where only a half-dozen heavily armed baselines went a moment before.

Paul takes out his gun, attunes his gear, and goes invisible before the gate opens with the comment,

"I'm going to hover near the ceiling. No warning shots please."

He'll 'let' Defender take point on this one.

Inside the ship, the strike team has already moved to check the room, and Patricia is waiting near the door. "No sign of any aliens. But I'm sure we'll run into them soon. The Cap over there wants to take his strike team after the shield generator - but they're flexible. I'll follow them, unless you have another plan?"

[Alex Green]

Inside the ship, the strike team has already moved to check the room, and Patricia is waiting near the door. "No sign of any aliens. But I'm sure we'll run into them soon. The Cap over there wants to take his strike team after the shield generator - but they're flexible. I'll follow them, unless you have another plan?"

Paul sends to the others,

*I've got my camera out, the shield generator sounds good to me.*

Paul starts taking photos.

[Rorx]

Nathan will set his pda into a shoulder position on his eufiber and start videoing the raid.

"Shields sounds good to me, although if we get time a look at how their weapons work could be useful."

[Alex Green]

Paul sends,

*We really should head for the Engine room. Lack of mobility is our greatest weakness. If we knew how their engines worked we might be able to fight them away from the Earth, and the human race would have a chance of survival even if we lose the planet.*

[Rorx]

After a pause, where no-one apparently answers him or otherwise offers an opinion, Nathan will continue:

"Since the troops are heading for the shields, shall we go take a look at the weapons? I believe they are one deck up, so how do we want to get up there? I can phase one additional person or I could alter the roof into a hatchway and stairs?"

[Alex Green]

Paul says,

"Sorry, we were communicating telepathically. I'll show you how later. Engines is probably were the gold is. With that we can fight them away from the Earth and save the human race if we lose the planet. Guns we have."

[archer]

Brandt lets out a slow whistle and glances over at Zhenglai. "Well, looks like it works. I think we should stick around here and see if any reinforcements show up, see if this cannon here is able to take one down that's ready for it. What do you think?"

[SkyLion]

Nathan pauses at the lip of the gate and turns back to say to Esteban:

"It's a shame you probably can't do the special ability, but since they're cyborgs a good old fashioned Rust monster could have been interesting" ::biggrin

"A rusty monster? You mean like a rusted Meklar? Maybe ugly to them but I doubt scary...Congratulations Senor Blue, one xenomorph coming right up!"

Esteban concentrates and his body shimmers into energy and light, glowing and pulsing with lifeforce. It is accompanied by a slight distortion around him and a nearly subsonic hum. Suddenly he reverts back to his human form.

"Hmm...that was odd..."

His body plasmafies again, and glows brighter for a second then seems to stabilize for several moments long before the energy form reshapes itself into a a tall, gaunt and sinister form. It is every bit the horrid alien, black biomechanical carapace, wicked talons and bladed tail. He appears to have adapted some elements from different incarnations, with digitigrade legs for either bi or quadrapedal movement and a thicker heavier armor. The creature peels back its lips slowly, drooling slime and mucous before a tendril sporting a second set of jaws snaps forth.

Over the link he asks,

*Suitable, no? I took the liberty of altering the structures undearneath the facial carapace to support electromagnetic scanning. I can now effectively see through walls. Is everyone ready? I suggest we stealth it and avoid confrontation for as long as possible. When the inevitable happens, I will do my best to buy us some time.*

((Armor, Armor, Armor, Density Increase, Face of Terror, Tendril, EM Scan))

[Rorx]

Paul says,

"Sorry, we were communicating telepathically. I'll show you how later. Engines is probably were the gold is. With that we can fight them away from the Earth and save the human race if we lose the planet. Guns we have."

"Maybe it slipped your notice, but they are already here. The engines I'm sure would be of use to wherever you guys come from, and yes you do have your BFG, but we do't. So unless you have some incentive for me to help you figure out there engines, I'm going to be more interested in the weapons."

[Alex Green]

"Maybe it slipped your notice, but they are already here. The engines I'm sure would be of use to wherever you guys come from, and yes you do have your BFG, but we do't. So unless you have some incentive for me to help you figure out there engines, I'm going to be more interested in the weapons."

Paul responds,

"If a few days they'll be dead and you'll be stuck here on this planet waiting for the next bunch to show up. Then you'll get to do this whole thing all over again with bigger and better armed ships."

"Without engines every fight is going to be here with your civilians killed while theirs stay safe and sound out of reach. We've proven we can make guns. For that matter you have nukes and those scale to any size up to and including the sun. If you can't bring the fight to them you can't win."

[Rorx]

"That presuppose that we can take all the current ships out with a combination of your BFG and the warpers, and that we have enough time to rebuild our devastated infrastructure so that we can even consider building ships.

Do you have any evidence for how long it would take their alerted fleet, or at least the next elements of it, to arrive?"

[SkyLion]

"They weren't even supposed to be here for another one hundred years. We presume they have near instantaneous faste then light travel but we cannot be certain."

Esteban's voice chitters and sound disturbing coming from his alien form.

[Rorx]

"So if one of the scouts has or does make it away from Earth they could jump out and be back here with elements of the main fleet in a matter of days or less? That suggests we have even less time to bother trying to build new ships, and should go for the weapons first.

[BlueNinja]

Brandt lets out a slow whistle and glances over at Zhenglai. "Well, looks like it works. I think we should stick around here and see if any reinforcements show up, see if this cannon here is able to take one down that's ready for it. What do you think?"

Zhenglai looks at Brandt blankly for a moment, then shakes his head. "I do not know. If we are going to stay around, it is still best if we decide on a place to flee to, so that I can be prepared to warp us to safety. Though it might be summer there, I doubt Antarctica is the best destination."

"So if one of the scouts has or does make it away from Earth they could jump out and be back here with elements of the main fleet in a matter of days or less? That suggests we have even less time to bother trying to build new ships, and should go for the weapons first.

The troops, with Patricia in the middle, move out into the passageway with proper infantry moves for urban conflict. The captain, in the back, glances over his shoulder, his voice distorted by the oxygen mask. "Whatever you're going to do, make up your mind quickly and move!" With that parting shot, he follows his men out into the passageway and out of sight.

((Rorx, I labeled the floors like a building; the first deck with the weapons would be the one closest to the ground.))

[Rorx]

(BN - So they landed/crashed on their weapons?)

Nathan turns away from the direction Paul's voice is coming from, towards the slavering form of Esteban.

"Senor Esteban, I admire your skill and choice of form. As Paul and I seem unable to agree, for what appear to each of us to be good reasons, I leave it to you to decide. Up to Engineering or down to weapons?

[SkyLion]

Estaeban considers.

"No matter what we do, we are going to encounter heavy resistance. What we need is time...to study all of their systems at leisure. For that to happen we need to disable the crew, and keep the Overwatch ship from scutling us. Paul, can you have Brandt take care of the latter? For the former, what was the word on igniting the methane? Burn them out of the corridors, provide a distraction and give us an edge in mopping up..."

Esteban's alien maw isn't moving, so he must have retained some kind of vocal apparatus in his throat.

[Alex Green]

"So if one of the scouts has or does make it away from Earth they could jump out and be back here with elements of the main fleet in a matter of days or less? That suggests we have even less time to bother trying to build new ships, and should go for the weapons first.

Paul says,

"You have to assume they can't do that and you'll have time to meet them in space. Seriously man, you have to. If they bring the main fleet here then nothing will stop them. If they bring in bigger ships they'll be able to crack the planet. We had the technology to crack the planet *before* we had novas. Guns isn't a problem. Fighting them on their own terms is because this planet will break easy."

"And I've asked Brandt to attack the other ship."

(To the others) *Brandt, please take out the other ship when you can. We have an embarrassment of riches here.*

[Rorx]

"We are wasting time, we'll head for the engines and hope to have time to look at other areas later. To burn the Methane I'll need to alter the atmosphere so that there is 3 times as many O2 molecules as methane ones, which shouldn't be a problem. However, I'll only be able to do that for a section at a time, unless they have all the bulkheads open. If I boost the oxygen level up to about 6-7 times that of the methane the mixture will be explosive, in either case I wouldn't want to stay around and it is likely to damage the system we are trying to study. I think we should just rush an area of interest and seal it off while we deal with it, then emerge later into the next section. If we grab engineering and can work out the controls we may be able to isolate them in pockets from there."