13445/Brood Invasion: The Second Rumor

Brood Invasion: The Second Rumor
Date of Scene:	06 June 2021
Location:	Shi'ar Imperium
Synopsis:	The Milano heads for a remote Shi'ar system to investigate a distress call... only to get ambushed by the Brood. Guest starring Lar, who becomes Brood chow. For now.
Cast of Characters:	Star-Lord, Rocket Raccoon, Mon-El
Tinyplot:	Brood Invasion

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Star-Lord has posed:
Even with galactic affairs being what they are, rumors of a Brood raid still get the attention of anyone with any sort of sense. First, an asteroid outpost in Nova space had confirmed Brood drones... and Gigas promptly tossed another asteroid into it to vaporize the entire thing.

Now... there's a distress call calling from a disabled Shi'ar vessel on the border between them and the Skrull... right next to a warzone between the Skrull and Kree. The Imperium has hired the Guardians of the Galaxy to investigate, lest one of their own vessels be considered hostile by the two warring Empires.

Of course, being a general distress call... anyone can pick it up. Will they chance the Skrull-Kree war, though?

There's no jump point nearby the planetary system of Krogola, so the Milano has had to warp in the old fashioned way. Coming out of warp speed at the very edge of the system, Peter starts to pilot the Milano over on the direction of the Shi'ar cruiser. "Rocket, did you check the cannons before we came out here?" Peter asks in a semi-serious tone as he focuses on piloting. The four planets and asteroid belt at the edge of the system providing plenty of sensor cover.

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
    There are times when Rocket would rather be flying, and going close to a war zone between two interstellar empires to answer a distress call of a third, equally powerful interstellar empire... that's one of those times. But then there's a certain joy in preparing the weaponry as well. Far as Rocket is concerned, any SAR mission is a CSAR. Especially when Brood are concerned.

    "Ya think I'd let us fly all the way here without working weapons?" He's about neck deep in the wiring somewhere in the cockpit, half hidden under a console. There's a near constant shower of sparks as he's adjusting something yet again... "Don't worry, Quill. We got enough bang in those cannons to blow up a cruiser." Which, he wasn't shy in mentioning, had been his proposed solution to the distress call.

Mon-El has posed:
    A distress call is a distress call, massive warring empires or not. Lar happened to be about that sector and picked up on the signal on his own ship. As he approached the area, he noted the Milano's presence. It looked like Quill and his people were on the scene, so he wasn't sure if he should get involved or not. So he kind of hovers nearby, watching and waiting to learn more or see what might go down here.

Star-Lord has posed:
"If there's one thing I can count on you for Rocket, it's big guns to keep us intact." Peter quips back to Rocket as he steers the Milano towards the Neutron Hammer. The transponder is still broadcasting... so there's still power. It's just dead in space and there's no outward signs of power.

Peter switches on the comm system, a general Shi'ar channel. "This is Star-Lord, aboard the Milano. I lead the Guardians of the Galaxy and have been hired to respond to your call. Anyone onboard, please respond."

Silence. Not even static. Their comm system isn't even acknowledging the Milano.

Then, he notices the newcomer. "Is that... the Legion? Rocket, get me a scan of that ship please, I'd love to know if we might have to run from it if we get into a fight." Then, Peter transmits a general hail to the Legion ship, requesting real time communication.

Even as he speaks, the Milano is going full speed towards the Neutron Hammer... and rapidly closing in.

It's at this point that Rocket gets a proximity beep on the console above him; something is MOVING out there almost right on top of them... and it isn't showing up on the Milano's scanners. Those are the potential boarder motion scanners.

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
    "Guns, mayhem, good looks... Place would fall apart me." Rocket agrees and closes the panel, and although he put in enough new wiring that it snaked across the floor while being installed, it all just fits when he's done. Like it just came out of the shipyard... how many of those surprises has he built into this ship by now? He's not expecting a response from the Shi'ar ship, not after the Brood rumor. "Ferget it, Quill. Whatever's left on board that ship ain't interested in talking to the exterminators."

    Hold up, did Star-Lord just say 'Legion'?! Ah great... Jumping into his usual seat, Rocket fires up the sensors and gets a close reading of Lar's ship. "What is this, amateur hour? What are these clowns doing here? Tell 'em to get lost before they get hurt. Those drones don't need ships to..."

    *Blip*

    "Uhh... Quill?" Rocket looks from his console and then up out of the canopy, pointing. "We've got company."

Mon-El has posed:
    Lar glances at the comms console as Quill hails him, patching it through. "Lar Gand of the Legion of Superheroes. I take it that's you aboard the Milano, Star-Lord?" he asks. "You and yours, anyway. Any idea what's going on out here?" He watches as the Guardians' ship hurtles headlong toward the Shi'ar vessel.

Star-Lord has posed:
Then, suddenly, power cuts off on the Milano. Or rather, there's an electromagnetic wave that sweeps the whole ship and disables power. A fact that Lar can visually see as the ships engines suddenly wink out and the Milano goes drifting. An ace pilot like Star-Lord wouldn't just turn off the engines like that... especially when the ship might go into a collision vector on the shi'ar ship.

The sounds of drilling and plasma saws cutting into the hull can be heard... especially around the engine deck and the airlock.

"Some sort of... stealth suits?" Peter stands up, his element guns coming out as he also turns on his helmet. "I've never heard of Brood having that sort of technology, but they're the only ones who would care to board." He looks to the dead consoles, before he looks to Rocket, his red eye lenses focusing on him, "We need to get power back up. Got anything to help us get to the engine?"

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
    As the power goes out, Rocket snarls. "Hey! I busted my hump getting all those systems to integrate, and I just got it all calibrated!" There's a series of clicks and what sounds suspiciously like a miniature generator coming online. Seems like Rocket took the EMP pulse personally, now suddenly festooned with weaponry and a small jet pack. "And I can hear you sawing back there!"

    When Quill asks if Rocket has something to get them to the engines, the raccoon grins and unslings a blaster from his back. It grows, it extends, it seems to keep unfolding until it's nearly the size of its wielder. "Oh yeah..."

    After a few moments, Rocket's helmet extends over his head and face, and the diminutive Rocket jumps up to kick the environmental controls, cycling the atmosphere out of the ship. Those boarders are about to find out that in his small size, Rocket contains enough anger to fuel a legion of berserkers. "On and through, no stopping."

Mon-El has posed:
    "Hmm..." Lar stares at the comms console when Peter doesn't respond. Come on, what kind of person calls and then just doesn't answer when you pick up? Quill seems the type to be a prankster, but this is a bit childish. But then the Milano goes dark and starts drifting. Okay, it wasn't mischief then. It seems they are in trouble.

    So he exits the airlock, engaging the autopilot and approaches the disabled craft, looking for anything that needs to get punched or laser-blasted.

Star-Lord has posed:
As Lar's ship goes on autopilot and he leaves, two large ships come out from behind the nearest gas giant. It's a design never seen before... but the basics of it are clear; Brood.... and that's going right for Lar's ship at a steady pace.

There are Brood ships out here, near the borders. This isn't just a raid, this is something more. This is further confirmed by the dozen or so Brood drones in some sort of space suits cutting their way into the Milano from the engine block and the airlock proper.

Inside the Milano, Peter gestures to the corridor, "After you, pal." His element guns are readied, being much smaller and himself much taller. Seems Star-Lord is happy to support Rocket as they head for the engine block.

Good thing too, because a slight rumbling can start to be felt throughout the ship briefly as the airlock is opened forcibly... and about six Brood get inside the ship before Lar can actually do anything about them. The others that aren't able to get inside quickly enough activate their thrusters, plasma cannons firing at Lar as they start 'flying' around him, trying to swarm him.

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
    It's not a good time to be a Brood drone. Taking on the Guardians of the Galaxy is risky business at best, and nigh on suicide if you only have one access point into the ship while facing Rocket and Star-Lord. A blizzard of well aimed shots precedes Rocket into the main corridor, floating down the access ladder on a burst of propellant from his jet pack. As he fires, he takes in the notable details. Positioning. Range. Disposition. Armament. Equipment. Even as the first shots zip towards the intruders, Rocket's enhanced mind has made up half a dozen different strategies to deal with this immediate problem, and the greater problem of drifting without power towards a ship several times the size of the Milano.

    After the first salvo, Rocket shifts his aim and runs under the table, pelting aft at full tilt. "Try not to shoot the torso, Quill. They've got Quantum Capacitors, I'm gonna need them."

Mon-El has posed:
    Lar can tell the Milano is on a collision course with that Shi'ar vessel, and that's not good. To make matters worse, it seems it is also covered with Brood drones. He'd heard the rumors, and it seems there is truth to them. As much as he usually gives most sentient creatures the benefit of the doubt, these he'd have no problems with simply swiping them away if necessary.

    But right now the priority is preventing the Milano from getting its passengers killed. Namely, Peter and whoever else may be on board. He essentially ignores the attacking brood drones, simply zooming past them and putting himself in the ship's path. Reaching out, he sort of grabs the nose of the ship gently and pushes back against it, just enough to point it away from the larger vessel. Hopefully, Peter and Rocket can deal with the Brood that have boarded on their own--at least for now.

Star-Lord has posed:
The Milano is course adjusted easily enough by Lar. Unfortunately, this puts him in a position where he's a sitting duck as it were for the Brood troopers around him... and seeing their plasma weapons aren't having an effect, switch to these tiny pistol like devices... aim at him... and pull their triggers. He might even recognize what they are from accounts of them from previous Brood events: Psionic Oppressors.

If they hit... agony. It's a world on fire in your mind, with every nerve going on fire as pain unlike anything one could have felt before lances through a sentient. It's concentrated torture in a red beam arc, and a dozen drones around him fire it right into Lar as he tries to keep the Milano from crashing while boarders make the Guardians of the Galaxy miserable.

Inside... Rocket is having a blast! (see what I did there?) Fortunately for him, the Oppressors the troopers inside fire at him miss, since they were not expecting a jetpacking raccoon.

Unfortunately, Peter, as he's dodging to one side, gets hit in the leg with one, and the scream of agony can be heard over the commlink as he gets behind cover. "OHGODTHATHURTS!" He breathes deeply as he tries to keep himself from blacking out, and starts firing his element guns down the corridor, icing up firing angles... or just the Oppressors themselves as he provides fire support, "Get the engines, I'll hold them here!"

As Rocket heads down the corridor, he ices up behind the Raccoon, forcing the drones to deal with him first.

That's gonna suck.... and then there's the rapidly approaching Brood cruisers... that are opening turrets on their sides. A green beam sweeps over the Legion transport once... and then the cruisers start firing at it, plasma turrets the size of skyscapers coming online.

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
    It's notoriously hard to hit a jetpack wearing raccoon, and even the most determined attacker can be forgiven for having poor aim when trying to shoot at a moving raccoon that's making the most of all the cover that's available only to small nimble creatures, while covered by a barrage or rapid pistol fire. Add to this that Rocket has no compunction about shooting any target that presents itself ... Suffice to say, Rocket makes his way down the corridor as the center of a very localised blizzard of concentrated violence, and is soon lost in junction to the engine room.

    "Quill, I'mma need you ta hold 'em off me fer a while." he calls over the comms when he hears that yelp of pain, surveying the reactor and engines... both dead. EMP pulses are just the worst... "... 's a bit of a mess in here."

    Pause

    "More 'n usual, I mean."

Mon-El has posed:
    Phew, the Milano is safe. At least for now. Unfortunately, Lar was never the stealthy type. Making himself a target usually isn't a problem, because he's usually the one able to tank better than anyone else. But with these types of weapons, he's just as vulnerable as anyone else. Quill thought getting hit in the leg once was bad?

    Try getting hit by at least a dozen of those things on every part of your body.

    The Daxamite doesn't even have energy left to scream--instead, his nervous system is completely overwhelmed by the pain and he simply blacks out from the shock, his body going limp and beginning to drift in whatever direction physics should dictate.

    As for the Legion's ship, the AI detects that it is being attacked and puts up shields, but they won't last forever and it knows that, so it starts executing evasive maneuvers.

Star-Lord has posed:
It's not going much better inside the Milano either. Two drones peel off to try to begin opening a way towards Rocket, only to have Earthen sledgehammers knock them into the nearest wall... and then ice encase it. Rocket can easily feel the forces involved too. Peter isn't holding back with those element guns. There's gonna be a LOT of repairs needed after this. Still, Peter can handle them. Right?

Right?!

Outside, the Legion transport begins evasives... and that means the turrets start wildly firing as they try to track it. Without anyone onboard to stay their hand though, a half dozen Brood swarmers fly out of the hangar bays, to try to get better targeting on the transport. Meanwhile, the dozen drone troopers begin to fly in to pick up Lar. That close, he could probably pick up the excited chittering, if he weren't blacked out.

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
    Focus! Focus on the repairs at hand, and let the rest take care of itself. Being part of a team means not having to look over your shoulder constantly, and Rocket has to believe that Quill has this. Because if he doesn't, this is gonna be problematic. A further complication, of course, is that he's going to have to jump start the reactor. And restarting a fusion reaction without a precisely calibrated energy source?

    You need Rocket brains for that.

    It's literally Rocket science.

    Slinging his blaster on his back, Rocket begins unbolting a series of access covers, using nothing but his own gauntleted hands. "Remember, Quill, don't shoot 'em in the chest. ... an' try not to put too many holes in the ship, will ya?"

Mon-El has posed:
    The ship takes some hits, and then starts gunning toward a cloud of debris not too far off. Abandoning its crew or passengers is a last resort, but if it gets destroyed it won't be much use to them anyway.

    As for Lar, he doesn't wake up, and the drones are free to take him and attempt whatever it is they have planned...

Star-Lord has posed:
Another couple massive hits, and then everything goes silent... before there's a rather harsh metal on metal sound that vibrates the ship. "I just closed the bridge bulkhead and sealed up the other side with ice. I can keep them busy with some grenades, but without power, I have no way of knowing if there are more out there."

Indeed, two drones start taking Lar away, towards the cruisers... and the cruisers themselves split up. One goes towards the transport, accelerating to go after it. The other remains on station near the Milano.

"Rocket, why the frick do you need Quantum things?"

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
    The response, when it comes, has a certain echoing quality, as if Rocket is quite deep inside something and can't spare the time to dig himself out to use the comms. "If you've got any better ideas on how to restart a regulated fusion reaction and channel energetic plasma to the engines without time for a full on calibration an' a fully fitted dry dock, I'm open to frickin' suggestions, Quill."

    Something slams shut, followed by the very distinct sound of a power cable slithering along the decking. It's surprising how good the crew of the Milano might be at picking out that particular sound... "D'you want the Quantum capacitors to pop or the whole drive assembly? 'cause that's the options we've got right now. Now, if you'll excuuuuuuuuse me, I'm a bit busy building a whole new power converter module from spare parts." Because, clearly, Star-Lord doesn't have problems of his own...

Mon-El has posed:
    The smaller Legion craft enters a small asteroid field, introducing a lot of obstacles for the larger Brood cruiser to deal with. This will make finding it much more difficult, much less hitting it. It scans, and scans, and locates a rock with a lot of holes in it. It then flies toward a hole that by the scan data will just barely fit the craft. Yeah that's probably Brainy's algorithms talking.

Star-Lord has posed:
Lots of rocks, and no transport in sight? There's a simple solution to that: Bombardment.

The cruiser suddenly opens up, the bio-organic hull coming alive as technological and organic weaponry both begin to shoot into the asteroid field. Artillery begins to systematically detonate all across space as the transport hides...

Unfortunately, this attracts the attention of a Skrull battleship, who does a micro-warp jump over to the other side of the field... and seeing the origin of the bombardment, begins to fire at it, without warning. Soon, the Brood cruiser and the Skrull battleship are locked in direct combat... and the second Brood cruiser starts accelerating to assist it's partner, with just enough time for Lar to be brought aboard.

In the Milano, a nunber of Brood drones are knocked out by Peter's work... but more are already trying to come in through the airlock. Keyword trying, since Peter keeps icing up that corridor as they come. This is a lot more difficult than it looks when you cant just incinerate people! "If you need these things, get them soon. We have more company and I'm barely keeping them all contained."

*BOOM*

"Ok, that hole was worth it."

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
    You can't rush genius. It takes time, it takes effort, it takes patience. A virtue which Rocket possesses in very limited quantity. And, as it turns out, you can absolutely rush 'good enough'. The armature isn't pretty, it's probably not even safe, but it's functional. Most importantly, it's hooked up and ready now.

    "Sheesh, Quill, the way you're goin' on, it's almost like there's..." and as Rocket comes around the corner, he sees that there is, in fact, an entire boarding party being held off but just his half-human team mate. "... Oh."

    Ignoring the damage to the ship, for now, Rocket scuttles over to the fallen Brood drones and starts to rip components of their armored carapace, pausing only to chuck a grenade almost absent-mindedly over to Star-Lord. "Here. An' try not to blow up the whole ship with it."

    Then he scuttles off again, to insert the capacitors into the armature currently attached to the reactor. "You might wanna hold on t' sumthin' in about... ooh, ten seconds or so."

Mon-El has posed:
    Better nuke it from orbit, just to be sure. The blanket artillery fire blows up quite a few rocks, but given they don't know where the ship went and this is space we are talking about, they miss the mark. The Legion vessel stays where it is, even as the Skrulls open fire on the Brood, providing the perfect distraction.

    Now, it focuses on attempting to scan for and locate its crew, which for now only consisted of Lar.

Star-Lord has posed:
"If you gas us all again, I'm docking your pay for a month." Peter gripes, before he closes the bulkhead on the bridge completely and buckles into the helm. "I'm strapped in, get to it. I think I see a couple Brood ships out there." There's a pause, before he sighs, "Yep, those are Brood ships."

As Rocket comes back up, the Brood try to fire those Oppressors at him... only for the ice to block the signal, thankfully. Still, others are firing plasma into the ice walls around him, and they won't hold for long without Peter to maintain them.

The Legion Transport can find no sign of him, but sensors recorded him being taken into the assisting cruiser by Brood drone troopers. Meanwhile, the space combat around it intensifies, as the cruisers begin to use the large asteroids as fire from the battleship turrets as they begin to withdraw.

In fact, the Brood drones inside the ship suddenly withdraw through the airlock in front of Rocket's eyes, leaving the current crew of two alone on the ship. For now.

"Rocket, I'm hearing a lack of plasma guns out there."

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
    Quantum Capacitor after Quantum Capacitor is slotted in, and Rocket waits with two sparking wires in his hands, one of which seems to be snaking out of his half-disassembled jet pack, the other... oh horror upon horror, out of his blaster rifle. But then he needed two power cores in a hurry, and those were the only ones available. The ice chips and cracks, but still he stands there, waiting until Star-Lord confirms he's in the pilot's seat. "When I give the mark, vector us..."

    And then he goes silent. Eerily silent. Just at the moment as those plasma guns go silent too. "... Hey Quill, did sumthin' just happen out there? 'cause these drones just ran off like they owed us units."

    At which point he forgets all about the 'on my mark' thing, and connects the two wires together. The jolt jumpstarts the reactor, which goes prompt critical and ignites the fusion reaction.

    Raw power flows through the conduits, is shunted through a makeshift power coupler into a set of cables nowhere near rated for that kind of throughput, and then into the new power coupler assembly. The Quantum Capacitors hum as they charge.

    After only a few moments, while the power is leaving the coupler to the ship's systems, the capacitors glow... and with a series of small explosions, burst apart.

    Shrapnel fills the engine bay just as the power reaches the drive, and the Milano is propelled at full throttle. Anything not nailed down or strapped in goes flying.

    "Frick'..."

    Which includes Rocket.

Mon-El has posed:
    Okay so no live location but evidence enough of where he went. But the AI isn't advanced enough to go on a rescue mission on its own without any crew(Brainy's good but not -that- good). So once the Brood vessels appear to be good and distracted with their fight against the Skrull fleet, it transmits an SOS message to the nearest ship registered as an 'ally'. Which happens to be the Milano. Yes, despite how annoying Lar often found Quill and his friends to be. The message contains the sensor data it collected on Lar's last known locaton and movements into one of the Brood ships.

Star-Lord has posed:
Unfortunately, once that sort of power is transferred through the ship, Peter has no choice but to ride the power boost out of the area. Which makes it less suicide, and more 'bumpy ride'. With no jump point to take the surge, the ship takes yet more damage.... and it's halfway through this that the comm system comes online and the SOS pops up on screen.

"You have got to be kidding. I need to go pull his chestnuts out of prison /again/?!"