Departure, Part II- Heart of Glass

[Ragnar the Red]

Part I: http://shatteredplanes.com/forum/index.php?topic=4609.new#new

Darkness was all that could be seen. Cold was all that could be felt. Silence was all that could be heard. Absence was all that could be known. Was this death? Had the Stalblrfugl truly lived its last? Was all that research and development simply a waist?

No

It can?t be, Calto thought. This can?t be the end. Not after I've worked so hard and lost so much. It can't be. It can't be! "It can't be!"

"Ooaht cahn't be." said the copilot with a shiver.

"We?re alive!" said the pilot.

"Thank the lord," said the captain out of breath.

There was a bit of a pause, and then Calto asked, "Did the shadow knock out our lights."

"Yep," the pilot said. "We seem to have lost all power. On the bright side we?ll have a few hours backlog of air before we'd have to leave the cockpit. And heat, well, let's not worry about heat."

"I am code blouded," the copilot said. "I never worry abut demperadure."

"Wait," Olix said. "Don't worry about heat? Are you saying we don?t have much heat left."

"No, no, I wasn't saying that at all," he said in a voice that sounded like a lie.

"Jemry," the captain said sternly. "How much time do we have"

"Uh, we have a whole three minutes at least," he said trying to sound enthusiastic.

"THREE MINUTES!" Olix shrieked. "We could be dead by then!"

"Hey, hey, hey," Jemry said. "Let's try and focus on the positive."

"Like what?" Calto asked.

"Well, the engines stopped, so we aren't accelerating anymore," the pilot said.

"Ugh," the captain sighed loudly.

"Ought is dat?" the copilot asked straining his eyes to look forward. No one paid him any attention.

"Everyone, just calm down," Calto said.

"What reason do we have to calm down!" Olix said.

"Ooee ooill nod die doday," the Iapaq said, still no one noticing.

"I'll make a fire," Calto said. He was slightly mad at Olix at this point, and thought it would be enough to make a finger candle. He made it, but he could barely see it in the dark, and his fear was making his senses heightened.

"Ahn egsit as ahbeard," the copilot said.

"I don't see it," said Olix.

"Me either," said Calto.

"Make it brighter," Olix said.

"I'm trying," Calto said.

"Ooee ooill leave dis blace naoo," the Iapaq said.

Suddenly the entire place around them became bright, as if a thousand lights were suddenly shining into their cockpit. The reason for this was, they were. There were thousands of stars laying across the galaxy, and no one on board that ship had ever seen a star before. There were none inside the Aserical shadow. The sight was so beautiful that no one noticed Calto fall to the ground, clutching his temples. Little did they know, they had come out of the shadow in Lorcar space.

Power was returning to the ship. Before long the pilot and copilot had regained control of the ship, and were on their merry way again. "Ladies and gents, we have made it through the Aserical Shadow," he said with glee into the intercom. He then tried to contact command to say they had made it through, but couldn't get through.

"De chahdo musd be inderfearing," the copilot said. "Oh ooell."

"We need them all to focus," Calto said to himself.

The captain looked down at Calto and asked, "Are you alright?"

"No," he said. ?The screaming, all the magical Heliphlein need to focus and create an anti-telepathic barrier,?

"Ooait, ooat's going on?" the copilot asked.

 "Wait, why?" the captain asked.

"To stop the screaming!" Calto said. "They?ll scream with their minds and pop our heads like cherries!"

"Okay, I think we've had enough of this," the captain said. "Olix, would you please escort this man to the medical bay?"

"Why me?" Olix asked.

"I ding ooee chould ear im oud on dis," The Iapaq said.

"Do you know how crazy that would be?" the captain said.

"Do you know how crazy this day has been so far?" the pilot asked. "We really should hear him out. What damage will not having magical Heliphlein on duty for a few hours do? And what if he's right, and we take no action?"

"Ooee all die," the Iapaq said.

"I think we'd all prefer not to die," Olix said.

"Please captain," the pilot pleaded.

After a pause the captain said, "Alright, you have one hour. If nothing happens, you?re going to the medical bay, and the rest of you will be punished as well."

"Thank you," Calto said as if a large weight had been pulled off his chest.

"All magical Heliphlien, I am ordering you to channel your focus and make a n anti telepathy field around the ship. I repeat, I am ordering you to channel your focus and make a n anti telepathy field around the ship." The captain said into the intercom. She turned it off, and said to Calto, "I hope your right."

"I do to," he answered.

[@Pokemon Master Red]

OOC:Just out of curiosity, but how would heknow to make a anti-psychic field...? Your empire hasn't had contact with others(especially considering that you've said you wanted them to remain unknown), and the Lorcar are only well known to those who've encountered them.

The ship would've found itself pretty battered, finding itself in the verge of Lorcar space. Because of the asteroid belt(created by the Lorcar as a defensive position artificially by stealing asteroids from other systems), unless they weren't able to get past it,their ship would've been very heavily damaged...More so than it'd be anyways, that is!
On the 'plus side', the asteroids in the field were probably what stopped them from moving as fast as they were in the first place(as in space, unless you hit something or still have power, you'll never even slow down due to the lack of friction). On the downside, they were still in Lorcar space with a battered ship. And these metal-rich asteroids around them, if looked upon closely enough, seemed to have holes in them, kind of like mines, maybe...Or Hives.
You see...The asteroid belt was where the Lorcar Yellow Jackets lived. Some of them were Frigate class, though most of those remained with the Maltruse Fleet for defense and raiding. So, these were mostly smaller ones, fighter-corrvette class. Still...Yellow Jackets were a primarily combat caste. As well, there were Bee- and Bumblebee-Caste Lorcar around, their usual fighters and corrvettes, with the Worker Bee-Caste(corvette-class) as well, which were medics, of a sort. A few bees crawled out of the hives in each asteroid, which were the product of Yellow Jackets tearing off shards of the metal and eating them and digging through rock to get to more metal. The metal wasn't digestable to the Yellow Jackets, but instead was a form of ammunition. In addition to the acid cannons they had in place of stingers(unlike most Bioships, which did have stingers), each of a Yellow Jacket's...(cont in next post)

[Ragnar the Red]

OOC: But they can have phsychic ability. That's what the focus emotion does for them. Also, is this an IC post or an OOC description?

[@Pokemon Master Red]

(cont. from above)
...six legs was a cannon of sorts which fired off these shards of metal, the front two being the primary legs, and thus longer to ensure greater accuracy. When the Bees had seen the ship, they telepathically alerted the other Lorcar in the area(your shield wouldn't cover that great a area if it was meant to defend the crew, after all), which then crawled out of their hives to investigate. Each one of the vespid locusts watched the ship, idly buzzing their wings, thinking of a strategy. Then, one single Lorcar gave a command...
Swarm from all sides, Bee- and Bumblebee-Castes first. Test their defenses.
This one was not near the others, though it resided in the asteroid field. In truth, it likely would be incapable of seeing the other ship...For this was the CO(or Lorcar equivilent thereof) of this sector of the asteroid field-a Frigate-Class Yellow Jacket. Its hive was in a truly massive asteroid, really more like a very small moon in fact. He really couldn't fit in any asteroid smaller.
And so the Bees and Bumble followed his command, leaping from the Hives to directly attack the ship from all sides. The Bees attemted to attach to the hull of the ship before 'stinging' it, trying to pierce the hull in order to create a vaccuum to suck out any living creatures inside, as well as create a opening to further claw open in order to damage the ship from the inside. The bumblebees used a smaller version of the bone cannons found on Hornets, the Hornet Queen, and a seafaring-Caste I-forget-what-its-called in order to bombard the ship. As the name inplies, they're simple cannons which fire a bone projectile at a high velocity. Not enough to puncture metal on the first hit, but when you've got a lot of bone cannonballs hitting you, it'd do damage.

[@Pokemon Master Red]

OOC:The big part was IC. Sorry I had to split it into two posts.
Also, psychic ability would necessarily alert youto other psychics, in any case, though I suppose with the Lorcar Fleet above Maltruse, their power might be detectable.

[Ragnar the Red]

OOC: No psychic scream?

The ship battered it's way through the asteroid field, but was luckily small enough to weave it's way around without making any significant damage. How ever the crew were quite shaken. "Everbody okay?!" the captain shouted.

"Yeah, I think so," Olix said.

"Let me interject otherwise," the pilot said. "But I think we hit something. Ton's of things flying through space have suddenly descended upon our position. They'll be here any second."

"Well, step on it Jemry!" the captain shouted.

It was just then that suddenly two giant yellow jackets floated into view, and another two descended onto the ship. Jemry fired shots from his machine guns to keep the two from jumping on as well, and drove between them speeding ahead. Unfortunately for them, they had no idea they were only plunging deeper into Lorcar territory. As the other yellow jackets began singing, they would dent the hull, but not immediately break a hole in it. "This isn't looking good," Laniq thought to himself.

"Jemry, stop shooting, we don't want to provoke them any further," the captain said.

"I didn't see much of a choice," he said looking at an instrument showing the beasts stinging the hull.

As they sped past the oversized colonists, Calto found what he had run back into the room for: a small piece of paper. He looked at it with a second of relief, and a small trickle of joy crept into his heart. Joy wasn't the only thing that trickled in though, and that could be heard by the beep of his watch. Olix looked over at Calto, and an idea popped into his head, an idea of how to save them all.

[@Pokemon Master Red]

OOC:No, the main ships in the fleet are dealing with Hawk's ship in Iron Diplomacy(and by dealing with I mean smacking it with frigates), and Yellow Jackets, Bees, Bumblebees, and Worker Bees are not good psykers, so they wouldn't bother. Also...Where did you get two large Yellow Jackets attacking the ship from? There's only one frigate-Class Yellow Jacket(the rest are smaller) in the immediate area, and the attacking ships are Bees and Bumblebees, which is to say fighters and Corrvettes.(on a unrelated note, Yellow Jacket-Caste Bioships have no stingers, they have a acid cannon there. Fairly certain I posted that on my previous post)

It was obvious they wouldn't break the hull on the first try, after all, the ship WAS made of metal. Still, they'd keep trying until they succeeded, or heavily injured. Many were injured by the machine guns, and fled for realative safety of the asteroid Hives, but there were more coming from everywhere. The bone cannonballs fired from the Bumblebees found their mark on the hull of the ship, battering and denting it further. If the barrage continued hitting them, there was a good chance the hull could actually break open, and the Bumblebees kept flying alongside the enemy ship, in order to keep a good accuracy on it.
[shadow=white, right]Continue, we're doing damage! They'll know our wrath for intruding upon our domain! The leader  Yellow Jacket said from within its Hive. It continued to watch them attack the ship through their own eyes, to better coordinate the assault.

[Ragnar the Red]

OOC: oh, well my mistake. Also, the machine guns only shot at two Lorcar: the ones in front.

"Calto, I need you to come with me," Olix said rushing out of the bridge.

Calto was a bit surprised by this new course of action, but nonetheless followed. The captain would have objected to this, but was preoccupied.

"Any ideas?" the pilot asked the captain.

"Choot dem all doun," the Iapaq said.

"Any real ideas?" the pilot asked.

The captain's face lit up. "How could we forget! The gravity pocket cannons!"

"Of coarse," the pilot said with realization. He then ordered other crew members begin to fire gravity pockets, tiny spheres of artificial gravity right past the Lorcar on the ship to try and pull them off, and other ones at the bombarding gunners. Not only would it help to deflect cannon balls, but it could also be a really temporary disability to a Lorcar that was hit. They would suddenly bee knocked off balance, and need to reposition themselves. It was no big threat, but every little bit would count.


In another part of the ship, Olix said to Calto, "This had been quite a day hasn't it?"

"Oh I know," Calto answered.

"Personally I was hoping we'd have a quiet run before we got some action," Olix said in return.

"Yeah, that would have been nice," Calto said stopping to pant. He looked over to his left and saw something odd. "Why is the inner door of the airlock open?"

Next thing he knew he was being shoved into it by Olix, and the door was shutting behind him. "Olix! OLIX!" he shouted through the window.

[@Pokemon Master Red]

OOC:. . .I need to get back into the routine of posting in places I need to. . .><

The Bees and Bumblebees were knocked off by the gravity cannons...But they just kept coming, and in swarms, too. Not waves, no, a continuous swarm of Lorcar from all directions. This was the territory of the Locusts, the ravenous horde of the Lorcar. There would be many everywhere. However...The gravity cannon did have another effect on their side. . .
The bone cannonballs being knocked every which way by the gravity spheres ended up smacking into many of the Lorcar, distracting them and (rather comedically)knocking them off course. There were still a few which would probably get past, but it was a smaller number, indeed. The Yellow Jacket, in its massive asteroid, grew rather irritated...But also intrigued. He issued new commands to them, and the swarm seemed to stop temporarily, allowing them a swift reprieve. In reality, the Lorcar instead flanked around to the front of the ship, forming something of a large spacial blockade, which rushed the enemy ship. Its intent, though such would likely go unseen by their foe, was not actually a direct attack...but instead, to herd the enemy in a different direction. To achieve this, the rushing was much more heavy on the(from the enemy's point of view) left side, intending on making them go right...In the general direction of the asteroid where the Yellow Jacket was.

[Ragnar the Red]

"They're ripping the ship apart! Don't you see?" Olix said, his words filled with emotion.

"Yes, I see that!" Calto screamed. "That's why you need to stop wasting time. Get me out of here! What good will it do sitting here as we're torn apart!"

"Don't you see it?" Olix said with a misleading sense of passion and sorrow. "You're the key! You're the way out of this mess! You're the greatest weapon on this ship!"

A dark thought crept into the back of Calto's mind. Could he really do what I think he's going to do? Could he really stoop to that level? Calto thought. No. He couldn't. The idea was just to sick: to demented. Calto pushed it to the back of his mind as his watch let of a quiet beep that went unnoticed.

"Please let me in," Calto said sad enough to make a child cry. Olix however did not oblidge. Instead, he slapped his hand on the glass, showing Calto the little piece of paper he has lost earlier on the bridge.


Meanwhile, on the bridge, the captain, pilot, and other crewmembers were not in the middle of partying over victory. It seemed to easy for the monsters to just back off like that. They weren't sure what they were up against, not until they saw the blockade.

They looked at it in shock, knowing it was to many to barge they're way through like before, and lives began to flash before eyes.

"Curaizee Iye-vahn?" the copilot suggested?

[@Pokemon Master Red]

The Locust blockade had charged them, swarms of Lorcar attacking the ship all at once from the front. They used their legs to grab for any foothold on the ship, attacking with everything they had once anchored as well as slowing it down at the same time, which would allow more and more Locusts to grab hold. Once enough were attached, they began dragging the ship further into the field, towards the asteroid with the Commanding Yellow Jacket inside, all the while stinging and biting and attempting to shred the hull in every way they could.

[Ragnar the Red]

The pilot tried to pull away, but was unable to struggle away. There were to many to shoot down with the machine guns; to many to even be driven away be the gravity guns. The more the pilot struggled, the less he seemed to be successful. "Any ideas?" he asked the crew.

"How about a science officer?" the captain said.

"That'd be nice," the pilot said as he turned to avoid the bugs and began flying toward the asteroids again.


Beep..........Beep.........
Calto couldn't ignore the beeping any longer, no matter how hard he tried. He couldn't control his emotions: each beep pushed him further over the edge, made him feel like he had less and less hope. As he covered his ears and turned away, the picture Olix had flashed of his dead wife.

"Don't you see?" Olix said. "If we're going to make it out of here alive you'll have to remember her. Let the memory flow through your veins. She'll be important if we're to make it out of here alive." His comunicator began to beep, but he turned it off and threw it to the side. "Think of her," he said.

Calto however would not give in so easily. He repressed the thought, and controled his emotions as much as he could. It wasn't going to be enough.

[Ragnar the Red]

OOC: SUPERBUMP!

[@Pokemon Master Red]

With the little resistance being put up, the Locusts easily tore apart fragments off of the ship's hull. Entire sections of the ship would very likely be exposed to space, the protecting hull completely torn off. Whatever remained of the ship would be dragged further into the asteroid field as further damage was inflicted upon the internal, exposed systems, likely causing hardware failures in vital systems such as Life Support systems or engine controls.

[Ragnar the Red]

Calto could not contain it any longer. As the hull around him was torn away the vacuum of space sucked him right to the heart of the Lorcar storm. A hideous glowing blue energy pulsed from his body that would make Ancel proud. Scorching heat and searing cold swirled around Calto, as the magic that had once destroyed a city was unlocked.

As many of the Heliphlein rushed to escape the rooms that were damaged and unsafe, time began to slow. Adrenaline was pumping through their veins, and they began to wonder if they were at their deathbed. Then they saw it: the beacon of light some knew so well. It was beautiful, but terrible, and all looked out, petrified with amazement.

[@Pokemon Master Red]

Change tactics. Attack from afar, stay wary of the new weapon.

Immediately, the Locusts flew away from the immediate area of the burst of light and destructive force. Bee and Bumblebee castes attempted to compile their limited psychic power into a single telepathic shockwave, while Yellow Jackets hid from behind asteroids and fired shards of metal directly to the foe. They remained wary about what they were dealing with, however; this was a unknown attack upon them. As well, the new attack got more notice from the defending Lorcar Fleet, though they didn't yet directly interfere. While such would be imperceptible to the people aboard the ship, or more likely than not to whatever was emitting the burst of light, the fleet was watching the entire procession through the eyes of the Bioships attacking the unidentified ship.

[Ragnar the Red]

"I've got an idea," said the captain. It was risky, but she liked her chances better than sitting and waiting to be ripped apart. She turned to the pilot and asked, "Can you fly us closer to the Torment burst?"

The pilot looked at her shocked for a second, then realized her plan. "Yes ma'am," he said eagerly, and cautiously, yet quickly, pulled the ship closer to the danger.


It was then that the first bolt released from Calto. As the white beam of crooked energy embedded itself in a nearby asteroid, the rock's outer core froze at such a great speed that the force of the blast shattered it entirely to reveal it's now boiling core.

[@Pokemon Master Red]

The shards of metal fired at the attacking enemy hit their mark, as they'd flown towards it unopposed. While many crashed into each other or were imperfectly aimed to begin with, at least one was able to impale the energy-arcing foe. As for the enemy counterattack itself, the Locusts observed the altered asteroid, and began keeping farther distance. Considering what it did to their cover...If it survived the impalement, they were going to fight it from a wide berth.

[Ragnar the Red]

As the giant piece of rock hit Calto, it began to heat up and heat up. By the time it reached him, it was a scalding gas, and as it hit him his torment gained a boost from his pain. The light gave off an energy burst that knocked everything back.

[@Pokemon Master Red]

The Locusts sensed the knock-back wave, flying backwards of their own accord in order to parry it so they wouldn't be caught off guard. The retaliated soon enough, with several more shards of metal fired, but not just the sharp metal...No, this time they also sent a blast of adhesive acid from all directions in order to sear his flesh.

[Ragnar the Red]

Unfortunately for them, the acid had a much lower boiling point than rock and never reached him. However the insectoids had underestimated the shockwave. It had in fact hit them, them being not nearly fast enough to dodge, but being much more space worthy than the Heliphlein ship and asteroids they weren't as greatly affected. However, the wave was gaining momentum, and as it reached the edge of their fleet it was releasing lethal damage. And to make matters worse, it was now on the verge of hitting the hornet's asteroid.

[@Pokemon Master Red]

OOC:Technicality, but the asteroid has one of the Lorcar's Yellow-Jacket class ships. Hornets are much, much bigger. Anyways(and sorry for the wait)!

The acid may have boiled to gas, but this in no way affected its Ph, which of course left it still...well...acid. Just in gaseous form. And obviously extremely hot. This would just serve to make it even worse when it did hit, due to both the heat and dispersion making it hit a greater surface area, which would burn at more of him.

The shockwave headed for the leading Yellow-Jacket really caught its attention, and it braced itself within its asteroid for the hit. Unlikely that it'd be greatly injured, buuut that hardly matters as much as the disorientation that would ensue. In response, the Lorcar sent forth a psychic scream of their own, though as these were smaller, weaker castes it wouldn't be enough to cause much more than a migraine. Not even permanent, although the target would probably suffer them for around a month, at least.

[Ragnar the Red]

OOC: You do know a Yellow Jacket is in fact a kind of Hornet?

Calto cried out in pain as the acid burned his skin, and as his pain grew, so did his torment. As hot tears streamed down his cheeks, the psychic scream pushed into his mind, but did no damage. Torment was a volatile form of magic, and it had power from dozens of different sources. One such power, was that of focus. The torment had grown, and so would any focus power that came with it (though he was not focused at all). As the scream hit his mind, it did not destroy it, but was caught by it. The scream whirled in his mind, and quickly triggered torment's own psychic scream (though it would be far stronger than that of the bumbling bees).

The Heliphlein's minds would have popped like tomatoes had it not been for the barriers the magics had put up earlier. As is though, no matter how strong they're barrier was, the scream was more powerful. The crew of the Stalburfugal fell to their knees incapacitated by their new found migraines, and in some cases, bleeding ears.

None would notice the blueish purple light forming a sphere around Calto and a great deal of Lorcar ships.

[@Pokemon Master Red]

OOC:Yeah, but there's a distinction with the Lorcar. Yellow-Jackets are smaller, at most Frigate, while Lorcar Hornets are usually Super Capital. The Lorcar just have a vespid naming scheme for their bioships.

The Locusts noticed the glow, and immediately started to emit a psychic frequency to cancel out the magic causing it. By creating psychic wave, otherwise entirely harmless, with a opposing energy signature to thevmagic. It was like adding a positive and negative together, they canceled each other out. Still, however. Aside from that last burst, though, the Lorcar weren't aware if the target survived or not, and cautiously peered about the area, just in case.

[Ragnar the Red]

The Lorcar however did not get what was happening. As the light began to shrink and stutter, the whole thing went out of control. As it fell back onto the front line of Lorcar, the blue light suddenly solidified into a sphere of transparent energy. The few unfortunate Lorcar to have the sphere closed on them would be cut in half, and from inside the sphere Calto began to glow more and more intensely. Suddenly there was a binding white flash, and when the light faded away, the sphere began to crumble. Nothing inside remained. Calto, the ship, bits of Lorcar, and asteroid all alike had disappeared.

To be continued in
Departure, Part III-  Once Concussed
http://shatteredplanes.com/forum/index.php?topic=5208.new#new