13940/Brood Invasion: An Ambush

Brood Invasion: An Ambush
Date of Scene:	09 November 2021
Location:	Shi'ar Imperium
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Star-Lord, Starfire, Mon-El
Tinyplot:	Brood Invasion

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Star-Lord has posed:
The war for the Raken system is still hot. Raken 4 has been taken... and destroyed by the Shi'ar themselves with a planet buster. Raken 3 now has the full weight of the Hive Fleet pressing on it. It's mostly a fleet battle right now, with the Brood probing for ways to open up footholds on Raken 3. There's a small corridor that's being kept open by the Brood, but the Shi'ar have it contained groundside... there is no open warfare on the planet outside of that zone yet.

There are, however, plenty of assassins and guerilla warfare pockets on the ground, making trouble and trying to soften up leadership and infrastructure.

The Shi'ar have the ground force contained... but they don't know the world of spycraft or assassination like Peter does. Thievery and such has a lot in common with that sort of work... and he and the Guardians are busy working on countering those moves.

So it is that Star-Lord and Starfire are hiding in a cave in a jungle on the southern continent. He's /certain/ that a local city governor is going to be ambushed on the way to a planetary defense conference, by the Brood's pattern.

As they wait in the dark cave, Peter sits on a rock formation, he flips a coin absent mindedly, "Penny for your thoughts, sweetheart?"

Starfire has posed:
Starfire was indeed sitting nearby, a slight exhale of frustration as she lounges. Dressed in her usual purple and silver uniform, the Tamaran princess looks up as she's addressed, tilting her to the side.

"I am not usually one for the sneaking and subterfuge," she answers, a lazy glow of frustrated energy dancing between her fingertips.

"I am more accustomed to direct confrontation."

Star-Lord has posed:
"I know." Peter reaches out and touches her on a bare shoulder; a reinforcement of support, "If you'd like to go and help out at the zone they have contained after this, I'm not stopping you, but these sort of ambushes do more damage than the Shi'ar are doing to the entire zone northward. If they destroy Shi'ar leadership on this planet, it will fall a lot quicker."

He stands up and smirks back at her, "If it helps at all, I'm sure Drax will be happy to go with you." After a moment, the sounds of multiple hovercraft can be heard in the distance, "And that's our cue. Just let me scout and I'll let you know when to cut loose, ok?"

Mon-El has posed:
    Lar is also not usually the type for sneaking and subterfuge. And he isn't very good at it, either. Like Starfire, open confrontation is what he's accustomed to. Going charging headlong into a fight and punching, kicking, and thermal visioning the problem away.

    He has been away from the fight for a little while, taking care of some family business, which then led to another 'unexpected adventure'. But now he's finally back, and looking for Peter.

    Speaking of whom, he thought heard Quill's voice a minute ago, as the half-Terran mentions scouting. The Daxamite starts toward the mouth of the cave, intending to meet him on the way out.

Starfire has posed:
Bright orange, glowing and occasionally radioactive, Kori probably wouldn't make the most subtle of scouts anyway. Adjusting her comlink she nods her head before standing and stretching, rolling her shoulders.

"Do not take too long, or I may come out if I do not hear from you."

Star-Lord has posed:
As he starts to sneak out, Lar will easily be able to hear his boots -even silent as they are- against the rock... though Peter himself activates a stealth field as he nears the entry.

As he see's Lar, he suddenly stops, and presses himself against the side of the cave, trying to blend in.

What the frig is Prince Charming doing here?!

Mon-El has posed:
    "Hey Quill." Lar greets, approaching as if they were just...meeting up for a nice stroll through the jungle or something. He leans casually against the same piece of rock Peter is pressed up against.

    The sound of the hovercraft convoy momentarily catches his attention, and he glances upward for a second before looking back to Star-Lord. "I saw Rocket on Earth a few weeks ago. He had some ideas. Have you talked to him recently?"

Star-Lord has posed:
Goddamn Daxamites are no fun at all to deal with.

Why did he rescue this guy again?

"Hello to you too. Rocket has a new idea one a minute, most of them are hilarious or terrible. Why?" If anyone was going to see through this field, it would be a Kryptonian or Daxamite. Go figure. "Nevermind, don't answer that, I have work to do. Kori is back in the cave. When she says go, follow her. We're dealing with Brood." Star-Lord informs Lar as he sneaks by the man, moves into the jungle like a predator seeking his prey.

Say what you will about Peter, he does seem to know what he's doing. Lar can barely hear him, even with his hearing.

Starfire has posed:
Sitting, waiting, trying to contain her impatience. All things that Starfire wasn't fantastic at. Back in the cave she was pacing, floating stretching...

Anything she can do to try and distract herself from the countdown to being signalled.

Mon-El has posed:
    "Yes, speaking of dealing with the Brood. Rocket thinks the their behavior this time around is very different from--" Lar starts, but then Peter hurries off. "Hey, wait!"

    Fwoosh. There is a blur of motion and he quickly catches up to Quill. "As I was saying, Rocket thinks there's something different about the way the Brood are behaving this time around. He thinks they're after something specific."

Star-Lord has posed:
"TALK. LATER." Peter hisses, loudly, pointing back to the cave. "You're ruining my stealth!" Peter continues, "I'm trying to scout ahead."

Indeed, as Lar floats near Peter, he can see the hovercraft convoy in the distance. "If they see you, they won't spring the trap. Get back to the cave!"

Mon-El has posed:
    "Oh! Right..." Lar says quickly, lowering his voice to a whisper as well. Scouting. He -had- said he was planning to scout.

    He glances at the approaching convoy. "What trap? What are you scouting for? I could go up and get a better vantage point." he offers, though he totally doesn't go back to the cave.

Star-Lord has posed:
He just points back to the cave, silently. "i've been doing fine without your help, Prince Charming." Peter notes with a bit of an exasperated tone.

Mon-El has posed:
    "If you insist." Lar shrugs and sort of floats backwards a bit before zooming off back toward the cave, ducking just inside the entrance that Peter had previously come out of.

Starfire has posed:
There was yelling, talking, enough to have Koriand'r stepping toward the entrance of the cave, her fists glowing lightly in preparation before coming to stop. Well, Lar wasn't a hostile Brood storming in, so that was a good if slightly confusing sign.

"What are you doing here?"

Star-Lord has posed:
It takes a moment for Peter to disappear, but one when does... he's gone.

Kori and Lar both have a bit of time to talk it seems. Those hovercraft are almost here... a minute at most.

Mon-El has posed:
    "Oh, hey Kori." Lar greets. "I was looking for Quill, but he didn't seem to be in a very talkative mood." he chuckles a little bit at that. "Surprised he didn't tell you I was headed your way." he remarks, noting that she'd just now looked ready to defend herself. "Definitely would've given our position away if either of us had thrown a punch. So how are things going out here, anyway?"

Starfire has posed:
"He is quite serious at the moment," Kori nods, still floating a good foot off the ground for a moment that added to her already impressive height. Coming to touch down and letting the starbolts fade from her hands she shakes her head. "Things are...stressful, serious. And it's made worse by all this waiting."

Star-Lord has posed:
After another minute, Kori gets two chirps on her commlink; the signal that they took the bait and to come out starbolts blazing.

Outside, a small army of Brood have already popped out of the jungle and broken their natural camo, attacking the convoy with plasma rifles.

Star-Lord can already be seen in hand to hand combat with one, trying to grab his rifle.

Lar, whom has never seen him in melee before, can easily tell he's far better than his build would suggest. Whatever he is, his agility and strength are beyond normal humans, because the way he's effectively manhandling the drone is like a martial artist master disciplining a child.

The rest of the ambushers are busy with the convoy guard... the guards obviously not having been informed about this ambush ahead of time, with how roughly they're handling it... the screams from their oppressors filling the air from those who were on foot, the plasma weapons working on turning the hovercraft into slag.

Mon-El has posed:
    "I meant--" Lar shakes his head at her vague answer. "Never mind."

    "Rocket thinks the Brood are after something specific." he begins, starting to tell her what he'd just told Peter. "I think I agree with him. This relentless push into Shi'ar territory has to be driven by -something-."

    However, there's not much more time to continue the conversation, as Kori gets the signal while Lar probably just hears the sounds of battle and takes that as the green light to go do what he does best--go charging in. Which is exactly what he does, thermal vision blazing at the Brood ambushers attacking the convoy as soon as they're in range.

Starfire has posed:
"I am not sure," Starfire muses aloud at the Brood's motivations, yet another moment of her feeling like she'd stumbled into things she hadn't quite understood when she'd come from Earth to offer her aid.

As she opens her mouth to say more, the chirps in her ear brings a shift to an expression of joy and excitement, her eyes glowing that deep and bright green quickly mirrored with her hands.

"Time to go!" she announces loudly, but she's already taking flight.

She's immediately announced a she takes to the air above the ambush, glowing green bolts of energy raining down vengence down towards the Brood forces.

Star-Lord has posed:
One Drone is tossed aside as Peter tosses it's rifle to one side, and he uses his Jetboots to slam it against a tree, breaking it's back easily. Next, he steps to dance across the battlefield, using a combination of walking and flying, as he starts taking out the Brood drones in hand to hand combat, using the terrain to work on covering himself from being targeted by those oppressors.

Oppressor that are now turning on Starfire and Lar. A half dozen Drones each fire those psionic oppressor in a pattern that makes it clear they're trying to box them in...

It might have worked against a lone flyer, but unfortunately for them, they have two flyers with a massive amount of power to them... and a particularly adept martial artist dancing in their ranks, attacking and retreating fast enough that they can't get a solid hit on him with the trees and hills.

It's a perfect storm of decoy and artillery from above, really, one that makes quick work of the ambush.

Mon-El has posed:
    As the Brood open fire with those psionic oppressors, Lar is quick to make evasive maneuvers. Oh no, he's not going to let himself get hammered by a bunch of those at once again! Most of them slice through the air where he was just a fraction of a second ago, but one of them strikes him in the shoulder, causing him to curse loudly. But at least this time he'd expected not -all- of them would miss.

    Turning toward the unfortunate drone who fired that shot, he charges toward it, grabbing it by the neck and chucking it into a group of its compatriots.

Starfire has posed:
Koriand'r had been through quite a bit in her life, she'd dealt with pain and she was physically resistant...but plasma burns and blunt force wasn't quite the same as a weapon that directly targets the nerves? Well, that was enough to have the glowing artillery in woman form crying out, her flight wavering and her shots going far more wild as she's bombarded with the psionic weapontry.

Star-Lord has posed:
Luckily for Starfire, the bomardment only lasts a few seconds more as Star-Lord and Lar finish up what is left of the guerilla Drones. The Shi'ar mostly get back into their vehicles and pick up their dead, though the Guard Captain (easily found with his white and gold armor) stares at the group, especially Star-Lord as he flies up towards Kori and help to steady her in the air. "You alright sweetheart? The first time you feel those things is jarring for sure." Peter asks.

Mon-El has posed:
    Once the group manages to clean up the last of them, Lar approaches the captain while Star Lord goes to check on Kori. "If there's anything else I can help with, let me know." he tells him.

    He glances at Peter and Kori. "Yeah, I made the mistake of letting them all hit me. Blacked out completely."