14034/Brood Invasion: On the Outskirts

Brood Invasion: On the Outskirts
Date of Scene:	23 December 2021
Location:	The Raken system, Milano
Synopsis:	Superman comes to the Raken system to join the war against the Brood, and gets information from Star-Lord
Cast of Characters:	Star-Lord, Superman
Tinyplot:	Brood Invasion

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Star-Lord has posed:
The war for the Raken system continues. Plans are being made, fights are being won and lost, and hundreds of ships move and fight in-system as the Shi'ar and the Hivefleet fight for dominance.

As Superman flies into the system... even from this distance, he can see the starships all over the system at war.

And it /is/ a war. Sometimes, Brood just raid for new hosts and leave. They're clearly going All In with taking control of this system... and they're winning more often than not.

Little wonder Rocket has been on Earth recruiting.

Superman has posed:
Superman said his farewells to the Justice League, with the intention of returning before the month was over, and essentially placed Superboy in charge of his duties while he's gone. After such things, he took off into the morning sky on earth, a place he has not seen in the multi-day journey. But the streak of red and blue soars through the cosmos, growing a beard in the process.

Yet he sees them. The Shi'ar and the Hivefleet battling for dominance in this system, battling for some kind of edge over the other...and it looks like the Brood is winning at the moment. But the Guardians may yet be pleased, for Rocket's efforts were not in vain.

As Superman approaches the system, he's looking for one specific ship, even as he finds himself landing and walking along one of the Shi'ar stragglers, helping fly them back towards their own lines. Then back to his search.

Star-Lord has posed:
The Milano can sometimes be found planetside... but currently, after a solid ten minutes of looking, he will find the Milano on the outskirts of the Raken system, near the Brood side of the front lines.

The ship is engaged in a... dogfight?... at least a fight with multiple Brood starfighters.

As he watches the fight... the pilot is dancing circles around the starfighters while the back gunner tags them here and there. It's a weird style of fighting with a corvette class ship: It's half gunship, half starfighter fighting in itself... but it's clearly working for the pilot, since the Brood starfighters aren't having much luck getting any plasma bolts to hit... though those that do hit clearly hit shields as the starfighters and the Milano try to outmanuvuer each other.

Superman has posed:
It looks like the Milano is in a dogfight with multiple Brood starfighters...and they need help. So Superman emerges from his place, from floating in the vast void to moving with purpose and defying the laws of gravity, the Man of Steel starts flying towards the Milano. The Kryptonian was fast, faster than he had any right to be as he intends to fly straight over the Milano's cockpit and bring his fists to bear, attempting to swing wide...

and catch one of those Brood fighters with its edge to take it out of commission, assuming the starfighter doesn't manage to avoid him.

Either way, the cavalry has arrived. Hopefully in time for the Milano to avoid a fight it might have otherwise been standstilled.

Star-Lord has posed:
From this distance, Superman can easily see where the bridge is. The transparent armored glass giving him a clean look at Peter Quill as his hands play over the helm controls like a Maestro. He clearly knows how to pilot that thing well, and when Superman flies in out of nowhere just about literally, the front blaster cannons finish off the starfighter that never saw Superman coming and fly right into him.

Meanwhile, that back gun starts working overtime as the sudden newcomer throws their attempt at a formation out the airlock.

Peter, however, doesn't have time to look at whoever it is, and Superman can clearly see his hands flying over the controls like a madman as he throws the Milano into a corkscrew dive, countering the attempt at surrounding the Milano by the starfighters.

Superman has posed:
BOOM!

The blunt force trauma set the Milano's guns up for the fatality. Though there are still some starfighters left that are pursuing the Milano. So, Superman begins his pursuit once more. They're not going to have a chance to converse otherwise! So, Superman continues his flight!

Even as the Milano enters a dangerous dive, Superman follows in pursuit, using his heat vision to blast lasers from his eyes, hoping to slice one of those Brood starfighters clean in half!

Star-Lord has posed:
When you're as small and fast as Superman with a big obvious target like the Milano being bait, it's actually pretty simple to be overlooked by Brood drones that didn't expect a Superman to pop up.

Those dual heat beams from his eyes, however... /that/ gets some attention, even as he easily slices another starfighter in half. There isn't even time to see the Brood drone inside vaporize as the Milano continues it's High-G turn.

If this were Earth, the Milano would be coming apart from the sheer forces involved. As it is, that back gunner is working overtime and forcing the starfighters to dodge the plasma fire, even as Superman gets involved.

Superman has posed:
The Brood starfighter gets wiped out by Superman's heat vision, and he's immediately on the move again, flying around the Milano as it performs its complicated and masterful aerobic maneuvers thanks to Star-Lord's extreme capability to get the hell out of the way of oncoming fire. He's an experienced dogfighter, thats for certain. No doubt he'd be an Ace pilot on earth, even if the kind of Maneuvers the Milano is pulling off would cause some serious damage in earth's atmosphere.

Earth doesn't like high-G.

With the starfighters dodging plasma fire, it splits their attention between the Milano and Superman. The Man of Steel goes for another fighter, intending to grip the ship by its hull and throw it in the path of another, hoping for a two-for-one deal with these fighter crafts.

Star-Lord has posed:
With the starfighters being distracted by the gunner in back, it's childs play for Superman to grab one as it tries to dodge to one side. The two for one deal has the two craft get turned into scrap -but not explode- as they float in space.

Under any other circumstances, that back gunner probably would have taken advantage and finished them off... but there are still three starfighters after the Milano.

With only three remaining though, it seems Peter has a plan... because the engines cut out, then the thrusters around the Milano flare to life as Peter twists the ship around so the front faces the group.

Suddenly, a /massive/ shockwave of some kind emits from some device at the front... heading right for the three starfighters... and Superman.

Superman has posed:
Those two Brood ships are down! Clark brushes his hands as if he had just finished taking care of some simple chore work, though his eyes suddenly shift as the Milano appears to be in danger still from the last three starfighters! Superman begins to move, but hesitates as Star-Lord pulls off his stunt, and a /massive/ shockwave of some kind starts moving towards Superman! Could he outrun it? Of course, but he sees no reason to.

He actually starts to move towards the energy wave coming towards him, willing to try and power through ti. There's a chance he's extremely resistant to the energy like he is most things, but that doesn't mean it won't hurt, especially if its qutie potent.

Not to mention the sheer size of the wave.

Star-Lord has posed:
When Superman feels it wash over him, it /hurts/. A /lot/.

It's a weapon designed for sheer kinetic force to get through shields and play havoc with internal systems, so it's less about brute force and more feeling like something is trying to tear him apart. Literally.

Two starfighters get hit by the shockwave and crack open a bit, their engines disabling. The last barely gets out of the center, but it's engine gets hit, and that goes out too.

Well, the fighting is over, at least.

As it is, the Milano has a short burst from the engines to come to a full stop in space, and a moment later, the bridge plating slides down and a side airlock cycles open.

Superman has posed:
PHOOOOOOOOOOM!

The energy wave comes at Clark and he takes it like a champion! Superman is clenching his teeth and his fists as the wave passes over him, and holy CRAP does it hurt! It almost feels like this energy is trying to tear him apart from the inside out. Whatever that field was, it probably wasn't designed for -people-. But as the ships disabling, the battle seems to be over.

For now.

Though Superman eventually regains his composure after the wave passes, and he takes a second to control his pain, leftover dregs of the energy that still lingered, even as he began to float towards the Milano.

The 'S' shield is more clearly visible then, as is the long flowing cape that hangs from Superman's shoulders. He's not wearing any kind of oxygen mask or other protection, even still, he smiles at the Milano as the airlock opens, which gives Superman the opportunity to fly through it and into the Milano.

Hopefully friendly faces would await.

Star-Lord has posed:
As Superman enters, the airlock takes a moment to cycle inwards. Meanwhile, about ten seconds into the cycle, a man steps into view in the airlock window, peeks in, then steps away.

Once the airlock opens inside, Superman is greeted by the sight of what amounts to a futuristic space cowboy with weird looking space guns of some kind on holsters on both sides of his waist. He's clearly human though, "So, what brings the famous Man of Steel to our little corner of the universe?" Peter quips as he starts to flip a coin in hand casually, "I don't suppose it's our Brood infestation?" Peter continues with that quippy tone.

His free hand thumbs himself in indication, "Peter Quill, most call me Star-Lord."

Superman has posed:
Superman's feet touch the surface of the Milano's interior, and the Man of Steel gets a good look around the place. It looks comfortable enough. Though with the arrival of Peter Quill, also known as Star-Lord, Superman couldn't help but smirk a little bit. "Hi there, Mr. Quill."

He reaches to extend a hand to him. "Please, call me Kal-El. Or just Kal. Whichever you prefer." Whether Peter takes the hand is entirely up to him.

"Yes. The Brood invasion and the request for reinforcements reached earth. While most of the Justice league is either maintaining justice on the planet or preparing for the potential approach of the Brood towards earth should defenses fall here...well, I found time to come on over." He smiles at Star-Lord then.

"Sorry if its a little...underwhelming. How is the battlefront looking?"

Star-Lord has posed:
He does, in fact, take the hand and gives it a shake, before he starts to walk away toward the aft cargo bay, flippin that coin casually all the while. "Depends on who you ask, Kal." Peter replies with a casual air. "If you ask the Shi'ar, they're holding their ground until their armada is in place." He pauses his speech a moment, then continues, "if you ask me, they're going about their war all wrong, and they're paying for it in all kinds of ways."

Then, he offhandedly mentions, "Peter is fine if you want to be informal."

Superman has posed:
Kal gives Peter a good shake, so good that it may be difficult for Peter to notice it from any other handshake.

A life's worth of practice using his strength for basic tasks without breaking things was Kal's first lesson in the field of superhero-dom. Yet, the conversation goes on. "What are my choices?" Of who to ask, anyway. Though Peter informs him of the Shi'ar Imperium's current stance, Kal's interest is piqued by Star-Lord's opinion.

"Peter it is." He smiles. "How do you think they could do their war better? Perhaps I could help try and convince them of your strategy if its a good one."

Star-Lord has posed:
As they enter the cargo bay, a portable holoprojector auto-turns on and shows a very advanced looking holographic representation of the entire Raken system. It shows the current warfronts, the current problem zones... and even the current state of Raken 4, which is completely glassed and bombed into oblivion.

"They're a prideful people who refuse outside help. They won't even let the Green Lanterns help in this war. I'm only allowed in system because the Guardians are on retainer as independent contractors doing guerilla warfare for them." As Peter steps up to the projector, He points to one of the planets, "now, I'm not saying I'm an expert at war, but I have learned a few things leading the Guardians of the Galaxy, and even I can tell they're just fighting overwhelming odds with pride. They won't share their fleet intel with me, but I've convinced the locals to give me access to their system sensor net, and the rest is from the Milano's own sensor suite."

He side glances to Superman, "If they're gonna have a chance, the best thing we can do right now is help their civilians evac as much as possible. They've been infecting drones by the millions."

Superman has posed:
Kal frowns.

"Not even the Green Lantern Corps? Sometimes I forget that the Guardians of Oa often times don't enforce their opinions. The policing force of the galaxy should be involved in this fight, or at least you'd think so." Kal shakes his head. "Sad to hear." about the Lanterns, anyway.

Though Kal's eyes lift to see the map of the system, including where the fighting is heaviest or lowest. "Evacuation should be the number one concern. The less people the Brood can breed into their armies, the better. I can head to some of the 'disaster zones' and see what I can do about getting them all out of there." He crosses his arms over his chest.

"Any chance we can get into contact with the Shi'ar? or are they communicating at all with outside sources?"

Star-Lord has posed:
"They don't like outsiders 'interfering' with 'their' business." Peter shrugs then, "They consider this a solely Shi'ar affair, and have told me personally that 'The Lantern Corps are all meddlers.' Their words." Peter informs Superman, before he smirks, "Honestly? I think they'll give you the 'we don't need outside help' speech too.... but they only have so much manpower to devote to hunting down anyone they deem 'other'."

He leans forward then, pressing a few buttons of the projector, and it zooms on a specific fleet on the other side of the Raken system, "If you want to try your luck, One of the Imperial Guard is overseeing the region from here. I wish you luck in convincing them to open up the war."