The Galactic War: Rogue Element ~The Beginning

[Chad32]

The Hork-Bajir followed Joanne up, hoping to see the Andalites were ok. It was an odd thought. All those years fighting them, and he was saved by one of them. Thinking about it too much made his head hurt, since he didn't have a lot of practice actually thinking for himself. He was also getting distracted by the fact that he was getting lighter. For a minute he thought he was getting stronger because he could life himself easily, but he didn't know why he was getting stronger.

"I feel weird."

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Firin glances back at the nameless Hork-Bajir.  "Gravity generators are failing."  He jumps out of the hatch behind Keshin in front of Ferxal and Serid.  The two Andalites looked a bit unsteady in the lessening gravity.  "Let's get out of here..."  He glances around the room...so many unconscious humans.  He picks up a younger-looking male...perhaps a teenager or young adult and begins dragging him.  Surprised by the human's lightness in the fading gravity, he also grabs a slightly-older female, pulling them both back toward the docking bay.  He might only be able to save two of the controllers in the given circumstances, but that was better than none.  "Grab the other Hork-Bajir," he calls back to the Hork-Bajir for which he still has no name.  There was one other Hork-Bajir lying unconscious in the room.



Serid gratefully notes the three secondary team-members' return from belowdecks.  He glances at Firin as the Hork-Bajir speaks and nods, moving his own way back toward the docking bay.  Even in the weakening gravity, he wouldn't be strong enough to carry any of the controllers, and there wasn't enough time for a morph.  Any controller he could carry would still have to have the weight of a child in this gravity...Serid blinks.  The child...he could retrieve the child that had shot Keslin.  He quickly moves toward the crates where the unconscious child is laying.

[Chad32]

The Hork-Bajir grabs the female Hork-Bajir and starts pulling her towards the ship. Ferxal knew his arms weren't strong enough to carry someone, but he looped his tail through a Human's shirt and pulled him that way. The Human was a skinny young adult. He kept an eye on his tail blade so he didn't slice into the unconscious controller.

He knew that there were still controllers alive in this place, and as the ship began failing they would attempt the only thing that meant their survival: trying to steal the ship. <Everyone be careful until we're absolutely safe.>

[Aluminator (Kit)]

Aetheas's hearts leap when a plume of flame and debris rips a hole in the freighter. <Captain!> he says before he can stop himself, but of course Ossanlin's already noticed. He glances towards Claxter, trying to see what his mentor makes of this situation.

He continues to watch with rapt attention. Almost as an afterthought, he sets the Tyrennian's computer to record the effects of the high-velocity ejecta against the shields so that he can review it later.

<They need to get to the ship,> he mutters, not realizing that he's speaking aloud. <They need to leave that freighter...>

[Chad32]

Claxter had been keeping tabs on the situation, and keeping an eye out for anything else exiting Z-Space or just flying towards them in normal space. His attention was diverted with the explosion, and he looked at Ossanlin and Aetheas with concern. However he didn't kick the Tyrennian in gear to move closer to the freighter. He had to wait for an order, and not jump into anything needlessly. This was supposed to be a routine raid. They couldn't afford complications like this.

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Ossanlin scans the situation as Aetheas speaks up.  <<They are still alive, but you are correct, haste is important given the situation.>>


Firin moves quickly to the transport, piling the human controllers up against one wall inside.  He quickly does a once-over, pulling a handheld Dracon from behind the waistband of the older woman's uniform.  "Come on, blue-furs...gallop!"  Firin shocks himself a bit with the outburst...he takes a few deep breaths and calms himself.  Logic.

<<I sense evolution...how remarkable.>>

<<Quiet.>>



Serid makes it to the unconscious child and picks him up, though his hooves' contact with the floor of the bay is tenuous at best now.  He scrabbles his hooves across the floor and makes it to the transport, setting the child against the wall with the other two already there.  He pulls another handheld Dracon from the child, frowning with his eyes.  <Prince Ossanlin, we are boarding.>

Serid glances out as he watches the others make their way to the boarding craft.  <Hurry...we must leave at once.>  He moves to the front of the craft and begins the startup cycle.

[Chad32]

Ferxal was a bit behind serid, as he was pulling a Human along. More and more he could feel his weight lifting, and having difficulty moving forward. He considered giving up on the Human, but everyone else had made an honest effort to at least save someone. As he got to a doorway, he pushed off from the wall, almost looking like he was swimming as he made it to the ship. Finally he was clear, and he pulled the Human inside. He made sure to disarm and keep an eye on the prisoner.

The Hork-Bajir had also made it with his comrade. After a moment of rest, he smiled at Ferxal.

"We safe now?"

<We should be. I am Ferxal, by the way. What is your name?>

"Most Hork-Bajir given names. My master say property not should have names, so I not have one. You save me. Maybe you give name?"

<Give you a name?> Ferxal asked. It was an odd thing. <Um...Breeyar.> He said, pulling a random name. It was an Andalite name, but that was honestly the only type of name he knew. It wasn't like he ever needed to know the names of his enemies, or their slaves. In any case, the newly freed Hork-Bajir looked satisfied.

"Thank you."

<You are welcome.>

[Shenmue654]

The situation was getting increasingly difficult. Joanne's rapidly decreasing weight was causing her to drift slightly off the ground. They had to get in range of the transport before it took off. Luckily they weren't losing track of the others. Joanne, upon seeing the transport, uses the last bit of traction she can manage to push herself onto the transport's edge. She grasps the side of the entrance and hoists herself inside, breathing faster in normal.

<Kess, that was way too close. We did a ****ing moonjump for that last bit.>

<We made it, didn't we? Paranoia later, head count now.>

Joanne hurriedly glances around to make sure all the Hork-Bajir and Andalites have made it on. She counts a few new add-ons in the form of the human-controllers, Ferxal, Firin, and Serid. Everyone else also seems to be accounted for. "Good, the whole away team made it," she mutters breathlessly. "Next time we want to blow a Dracon, let's make sure we bloody know what it is, al'rite?"

[Aluminator (Kit)]

Aetheas allows himself to breathe as the team begins to make its way back to the transport. He finds, to his surprise, that he's had all four eyes glued to his displays-- he's rarely so careless, but this is not a normal situation.

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Serid glances back and does a second check to make sure everyone is onboard.  Once his head count is complete, he seals the hatch and punches the warmed engines, jetting out of the hangar.  He pulls a maximum burn straight out, the fighters forming up around the transport as an escort.  The ship's computer registers increasing heat and radiation signatures and the display shows bursts of decompression happening all over the ship.

The engines roar as the transport labors to get away from the dying vessel.  Suddenly the screen polarizes as a blinding white light sears through space.  A second later, Serid nearly falls backward as a shock-wave blasts against the transport's shields pushing the ship faster than its own engines could carry it.  He steadies himself as the ship rides out the shockwave.  He doesn't think about how close they'd all just come to death.



"Everyone's on...get this thing moving!"  Firin watches as the hatch seals and the ship rockets into motion.  He watches the freighter blowing itself apart, and then squints his eyes against the core-nova flash.  A moment later, he drops to one knee as the ship blasts forward on the shockwave, bracing one hand against the hull.  "Dapsen."



Ossanlin watches his displays as the transport departs the dying freighter.

<Sir, gamma spike!>  Esarvit glances back at Ossanlin with a stalk-eye.

<Forward shields, maximum resistance!>  Ossanlin calls out as he watches the second freighter core-nova.  The blast-wave hits the small transport, pushing it forward at hyper-velocity for a moment before it clears.  The Tyrennian shifts just a bit underfoot as the shockwave washes against the large ship's shields.  <Good work everyone.  Please report to the bridge once you've landed.>

Ossanlin takes a deep breath...but Keslin is still in serious condition...his loss, should it come to that, would be incredibly painful for everyone aboard.

[Chad32]

Ferxal had just started relaxing when suddenly the ship they were on exploded, and shook their own ship. Both he and Breeyar fell against the wall they were standing by, but recovered well enough. The limp, unconscious controllers got jostled, and piled up in the corner. Luckily there was no real damage as he began putting them in more comfortable positions.

[Aluminator (Kit)]

Aetheas notices the growing energy surge from the freighter only an instant before Esvarit points it out. <No!> he gasps, his mind reeling at just how close the mission had come to complete disaster. The transport should... should make it out of the shockwave in one piece at its current distance, but had they been only seconds later...

He quickly sets back his recording about thirty seconds and plays it, scrutinizing the images, searching for any signs on any of his readings that the core of the vessel had been about to nova, but is unable to spot anything on this playthrough, either, up until only a brief moment before the core actually ruptures. Frowning, he returns his full attention to the situation at hand, vowing to return to this recording later. There must be something there, something he could have spotted that wouldn't have left the lives of the team to fate alone, and he curses himself for not having spotted it sooner. For now, however, the team may require his assistance.

[Chad32]

Claxter was relieved to see everyone make it out of there. The mission hadn't been a total loss, but given what they initially expected this had gone quite poorly. Some new Yeerk tech had been used, and he wasn't sure if they managed to get anything aboard unless there was something on the controller's bodies.

He almost missed a tiny blip on one of his scanners. Something at the very edge of the scanner's range had appeared in real space just before the explosion. After that, it eased away. Perhaps the Blade ship really had tried to come back, but after the last ship blew up they decided it wasn't worth it anymore. Or maybe it was something else entirely.

<Prince Ossanlin, sir, I believe after we collect our troops we should leave immediately.> He said. Though Ossanlin likely would have given that order anyway.

[Shenmue654]

As Joanne tries to get her bearings on the transport, a massive shockwave suddenly rips through the ship and nearly knocks her off her feet. Joanne cries out as the effect of the shockwave interacting with her natural electric current stands her hair up on end and sends jolts of electricity upwards from her arms and legs. No, no, no...she can't afford for anything to knock her off her perfect balance! Joanne closes her eyes, wincing and hoping she didn't send any of those bits of current towards anyone else in the transport.

She opens her eyes nervously, looking around. No one else appears to be too badly injured, although some of their number have been thrown against the wall. She hopes that they were too distracted to notice what just happened--- They probably were. Although her frizzy hair is somewhat hilarious. Joanne moves one leg, and momentarily finds it stuck as if briefly magnetized. She snickers slightly and shakes herself, relieved at how lucky she appears to have gotten.

<That was....By the Kandrona. I hope we didn't lose anything.>

<Don' think so. Just a little loss of balance, right? No problem.>

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Ossanlin glances at Aetheas and then Claxter.  <Yes, you're right, Prince-Lieutenant.  Begin plotting a Z-Space route to our originally intended coordinates immediately.  Once the transport is safely-aboard, make the jump.  I'm heading down, Esarvit...dispatch security teams and what human medical staff we can spare from Keslin to the hangars.  We'll need to transport the liberated controllers to holding to starve out their controllers.>  Ossanlin moves toward the lift exit from the bridge.  <Esarvit, you have the bridge.>

<Yes, sir.>


Serid breathes deeply as the shockwave passes completely and pilots the transport to the hangar.  This place is all but giving him the shakes, he'll be glad to see the blank whiteness of Z-Space once they're aboard the Tyrennian.  He makes a turn around the back of the Dome Ship and glides the ship through the atmospheric retention field into the hangar.  He glances behind with his stalk-eyes, surveying the other passengers as the ship glides to a landing.  <Everyone alright?>


Firin breathes a sigh of relief as the transport touches down safely within the Andalite Dome Ship.  He chuckles to himself mirthlessly as he considers the audacity of "safety" and "Andalite Dome Ship" being in the same sentence.  He still has the personal shielding/stealth device as well as the suped-up Dracon tucked behind his belt, but he frowns at Serid's question.  "Obviously not...Keslin had a hole blown through him if you'll remember."


Eleric bursts a bit of raw plasma from his engines to spin himself around in a high-performance maneuver, rocketing into his fighter's docking bay.  The rest of his squadron lands in a more-sedate, safer manner.  He opens his comm with Ossanlin.  <All exo-craft aboard and accounted-for, Prince.>