1646/The Wrong Kind of Attention

The Wrong Kind of Attention
Date of Scene:	25 July 2017
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Indigo, Viridian, Star-Lord, Gothic Lolita

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Indigo has posed:
    The distress signal is unsteady and contains no words or coordinates, just a standard repeating sequence of prime numbers indicating intelligence. "Star-Lord?" Indigo greets, voice humming electronically as she uses the term of address that she saves for when she's addressing him as her captain. "I'm detecting a distress call from within this system." She doesn't bother adding the part about how she considered the possibility of it being a standard greeting: the message's wavering pulse pretty much rules that out, as far as she's concerned. "No coordinates are attached, but I'm tracking it to a moving ship. Will we intercept and assist?" she asks anxiously. That's Indigo for you, a bleeding heart.

Viridian has posed:
    "Oh, wow. This signal's a mess!" There's Viridian, nowhere near a cosnole and chiming in right after Indigo as always. The blue-eyed, violet haired young technician is currently laying on her bunk, more of a G-couch really, designed for high maneuvers, and staring at the ceiling. The pink dolphin, Max, floats beside her.
    "You're right, Max," Viridian calls out, esponding to nothing audible. "Whatever sent this is either running some weird encryption protocool or it's... Machine language..." There's a pause and then Viri adds, "Indi, how fast is that ship moving? Can we even catch up?"

Star-Lord has posed:
Peter is /really/ not used to being called Star-Lord in a manner that actually makes sense. He's used to people not understanding that's his name or just wanting to tick him off by constantly hurling a barrage of clever insults in his direction by way of his name. What people don't understand is that his MOTHER gave him that name and thus why it MEANS SO MUCH. It's not just a cocky jerk way of getting status in a vast galaxial universe. Not /just/.

"Huh?" Peter was only paying half-attention. Probably because he was flipping through one of his comic books from yesterdecade. He drops the comic book down and raises an eyebrow as he looks off in Indigo's direction. "Uh, does it sound like they have units to spare? Because we could sure use some spare units right now." Peter's mostly kidding because he's already getting on his feet and heading towards the nearest console to be able to see things for himself. "Let's help 'em out. I'm bored. Maybe there'll be a Mushroom Princess inside..."

Gothic Lolita has posed:
    The ship itself is a advanced if simple design, a elongated teardrop with a pair of engines recessed on either side of the tail. No viewports that you can see as your ship draws closer, the weak signal continuing. As you get close enough to start making out details, you can see small drones that appear to be moving back and forth over the hull, industriously patching minor micrometeorite holes. It looks as if the ship may have run into the middle of a small storm and slowed to conduct repairs.

    One of those drones, however, is moving more slowly, almost daintly, as it shifts along the hull so it's facing you. The coded distress call appears to transmitting from the repair drone's wireless control system, which it isn't really designed to do. Thus, the signal.

    As you draw close, however, the ship responds, as its actual com systems power up, transmitting to you in a variety of languages, with the same meaning 'DO NOT APPROACH OR YOU WILL BE FIRED ON.'

    This close, however, the signal clarifies, then strengthens as its starts getting used as a repeater. "...please...help..."

Indigo has posed:
    "Yes, Star-Lord," Indigo affirms from her console. Then, a little shyly (she doesn't expect to ever truly get over her hero-worship of Peter), she adds, "Thank you." With that, she reaches for the controls to set a course. She uses her hands to do it: she could directly interface with the Milano and control it that way, but hasn't plugged into it since Peter salvaged her from space. Just a quirk of hers. Once she's finished addressing her captain, then she explains to Viridian, "I can extrapolate the vessel's course by tracking the movement of the distress signal's source, and plotting our own course further down the line so we don't have to travel as far. Chases usually favor the pursuer because of that principle."
    One hyperjump later, the Milano is near the teardrop. The warning of aggression/distress call are played on the speakers, for Peter to hear and react to. Indigo doesn't comment, just observes her captain with faith in her pink eyes.

Viridian has posed:
    "Mmm. Right, quadrilateration. I'll get Max prepped in case we need to head outside," the small woman speaks quietly, her voice slightly distant as her mind shifts to interface with her companion. The dolphin trills something unintelligible to any but the most advanced machines who might happen to be listening and then swims off using his anti gravity boosters to head for the cargo bay of the vessel and begin retrieving equipment.
    "I'm suiting up as well. Need to move quickly if we deploy, right. Indi, how close can we get?" Viridian's hair is shifting toward an almost lime green, the most clear indication of her nerves. Taking a deep breath the slender half-Xandarian rolls from her bunk and lifts herself by her arms to climb into the exoskeletal frame sitting beside the bed. She straps it to her legs and settles in, leaning back slightly. The soft hum of machinery coming to life might be heard.
    "Star-Bot..." Viri trails off and instead lets them all listen to the distress call in silence.

Star-Lord has posed:
Peter hits a button on the console nearest him to spend a response hail in the direction of the ship they're approaching. "Hey uh, this is Captain Peter Quill of the Sexiest Beast in Space: The Milano. We picked up your distress signal on what I assume passes for AM Radio and we're here to help. And stuff." Peter's not used to all this up front action and conversation. He's a thief, a Ravager. He usually just blasts distress signals into submission and loots.

"This should be a piece of cake, right, A-Holes?" Peter's talking to his Guardians by now. "Swoop in, scoop out whatever's inside, bring 'em on board, hope they are a hot princess, show 'em to my bunk..." Peter stops when he realizes he's going a little too far. "Uh, okay, you know what I mean though!" All this Quadrationism speak is lost on him. He wings everything. It's much easier that way. For him, anyway.

Gothic Lolita has posed:
    The signal halts for a moment at the return transmission, then returns a moment later, clearer, and as an audio transmission.

    "Please, help me, Captain Quill." says a soft, female voice, very polite and precise. "I'm being kidnapped for iniquitous intent." Calm, though there's a definite edge to it. "I've been confined inside and I can't move but I was able to use this drone to - "

    It's that point where the other drones on top of the ship stop as they seem to become aware of the transmission, then turn towards the lone drone as their green working lights flip to red. There's a serious of flashes as they promptly ventilate it with many, many little lasers as the standout is cut to pieces, falling off the ship.

    The drone starts cycling its engines as the red eyed repair drones turn towards the Milano, like an entire school of pirana poodles who've just had a large hunk of meat waved in their faces just out of reach. It repeats over coms: "DO NOT APPROACH OR YOU WILL BE FIRED ON. FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL BE VIEWED AS A HOSTILE ACT."

Indigo has posed:
    Indigo throws the Milano's forward thrusters on full. The ship is a bull charging through a flock of pigeons; many of the drones crack against the hull without consequence, destroyed by the inertial impact. The little buggers have good programming, though, and part like a cloud, billowing out away from the Milano to regroup behind it and attack.
    What happens next depends on whether Star-Lord joins Viridian or prefers to take the wheel himself. Indigo would never dream of disobeying her captain.

Viridian has posed:
    "Okay... Indi, keep the ship steady! I'm launching with Max." Viri presses a button on her exoskeleton and the forcefield bubble of a spacesuit springs into life around her. The petite engineer takes a deep breath and moves up behind the pink dolphin, latching onto the robot's tail fin with one hand. The other reaches out and slaps the button to open the hatch into space.
    Viridian shoots out into the swarm of drones with a burst of air, her pink dolphin acting like a personal propulsion device as she drifts among the little robots that are sweeping over the charging ship. She swallows, hard. "Okay, Maxie. You know how we do this... Repeat after me, sweetie." Viridian turns her mind to the bots all around her and takes a deep breath.
    Indigo might recognise the worm for what it is. The broadcast is clear and strong as she latches onto the drone signals. "These things aren't very advanced- I can network with them directly," Viri relates in a soft, clinical tone. Her hair is viridian now, which t so rarely is. Two, three, four at a time drones peel off from the swarm and crash into the drones next to them. Others begin transmitting Viridian's signal as the worm overrides their program with an imperative to propagate the cybernetic attack.
    In moments the entire drone swarm is in chaos.

Star-Lord has posed:
"Indigo, tag team with your fiancee. I'll take the wheel." Peter's already on his way to the pilot's seat and he straps in via record time. He doesn't even have a moment to handle the music. Not yet, anyway. He's kind of focused on the fact that they are doing this thing and that's all there is to it. At least, well, for the moment.

Quill focuses on keeping the Milano from being a target but also being the target because he's pretty sure there's going to be Two Robots and a Dolphin performing the most Space A-Team Rescue of all time in a few moments. "Sometimes I miss Baby Groot. He handled our music so well..." This is mumbled to himself while Peter focuses his vision on the Milano and the Drones Du Jour and the Teardrop Express.

That's a lot to pay attention to with all of Peter's focus issues to boot.

Gothic Lolita has posed:
    The other small ship is knocked around as the Milano does a quick flyby, its drones scattering, but swarming back. But as the worm does its work, some flip back to green lights and start slamming into the red, smashing both of them to pieces, with more and more changing colors and throwing the whole swarm into completely chaos, leaving a clear opening for the two women to make their approach, with only a few drones able to snap off lasers at them as they emerge.

    One attempts to catch a ride on Indigo's back as she emerges, either because it doesn't want to get rammed or because it figures it can throw her off course with its own jets. Either way, it does its best to try and latch on around her waist, as two others end up landing back on the other ship, adding much smaller laser bolts to the stuttering barrage as the two women reach the ship while its still rolling, its attitude thrusters trying to stabilize its course. There does appear to be some sort of airlock amidships on the top.

    Finally, the other ship reorients itself, accelerating as it starts trying to build speed. On the 'wings' on either side of the airlock, out several meters away, a rounded dimple pops up out of the hull, rotating as it reforms into some sort of maser weapon, before the pair of weapons begins firing at the Milano as the Collector vessel starts an evasive pattern.

Indigo has posed:
    As she rolls out of the seat, Indigo can't forebear a fond grin and a squeeze of Peter's shoulder before she runs to the airlock, her first few steps awkward as the thruster fins in her calves begin to extend (the ones in her shoulders don't really throw her off). If she died today, her last thought wouldn't be regret but pride: pride in her family for the way they step up, for how much better they show themselves to be than even they think they are.
    Indigo files that memory sequence in a cherished folder for frequent reexamination, and waits impatiently for the airlock to cycle before stepping in and blowing herself out into space. Her thrusters pulse and she's flying toward... well, not toward Viridian, on second thought! Viri looks like she's doing just fine. Indigo blows her fiancee a kiss, a gesture which becomes a sharp, downward elbow strike against the drone on her back, before aiming toward the teardrop... which is growing lasers. Interesting.
    Well, Indigo knows that trick too. Her left forearms splits into its constituent cables, swelling and growing into its cannon configuration. Combat mode engages; aiming subroutines kick in; HUD displays aiming reticules that interactive with predictive models to determine where her target will be at the moment she fires. She takes aim at the dimple and fires, gravitic apertures narrowly focused, the concussive power of a fundamental force narrowed down to a penetrating needle.

Viridian has posed:
    Amid the chaos girl and dolphin ride alone. A song can be heard playing over the speakers with great pomp and circumstance, as haunting as it is beautiful.
    "They're dolphins! Dolphins in Space! Floating about, protecting the porpoise race!"
    Proudly into the jaws of death flies the pink dolphin. Laser fire creates a brilliant gleam as it streaks through space, blue hot in its intensity. Briefly the pink dolphin glows when it is truck, reactive armour turning white hot and cooling almost instantly as it happens. A few of the drones think to fire upon Viridian but an energy shield quickly springs to life, bright red. Lasers bounce off of it, streaking into the middle of the frenzied swarm, creating yet more destruction and chaos.
    From the back of the pink dolphin is emerging a heavy automatic laser cannon. While not a weapon suitable for ship-to-ship combat it is exactly what would be mounted on a point defense fighter. These drones aren't particularly big. A spray of red laser fire chews through the nearest of the attacking drones.
    Slowly Viridian collects a few of the drones to herself and uses them to fight her way through the cloud of foes, pressing on toward the collector vessel. "If you can get us an opening, Indy, I can ditch the drones and meet you inside," Viri calls to the gynoid as she goes into cannon configuration. "Don't worry about the drones. I've got them covered. Kay?"
    "Dolphins! Dolphins in space..."

Star-Lord has posed:
There's a moment when the Milano is not flying. When it's just kind of floating there in space because Peter Quill is watching through the view window the epicness in which his team is kicking some drone ass and everything. There's just a moment where he realizes that they are all freaking amazing. And there's just this look of pride and joy that crosses his features.

"Damn. My a-holes are so awesome."

Then a blast from whatever Collector Cannon was aimed in the Milano's direction has him shaking off those thoughts and throwing the Milano into evasive movement. There's some twirling and spinning before Peter focuses up on the controls and takes aim back at those Collector Cannons and fires off a few shots to see if he can't stop the damn things from shooting at his Sexy Ship. He really doesn't like it when his ship gets shot. So many paintjobs. Ugh.

Gothic Lolita has posed:
    As it happens, penetrating energy bolts work REMARKABLY well on the turret, as both women can feel the THUMPBOOM! as the bolt sets off some sort of chain reaction, the whole turret assembling exploding off the ship and leaving a smoking trail of outgassing smoke behind it as it wobbles from the hit. Between the mass chaos caused by Viridian's worm and the heavy autolaser cannon on Max, the drones directly closest to the pair are blown apart, the rapidly diminishing number of lasers being fired at them mostly caught by the shield now.

    The ship itself is still attempting to build speed, however, tenaciously trying to accelerate towards whatever jump point it has ready in its navsystems, its remaining turret snapping off shots towards the dodging Milano, before Peter neatly clips off its barrel with a stutter of fire, the turret bursting in a shower of sparks as it falls silent as well.

    Not before getting one clipping shot, of course, along the Milano's wing, leaving a long burn mark across the paint.

    The few remaining drones that are still defending the Collector vessel land, forming in ranks in front of the airlock, ten in all arrayed in a perfect triangle as they bring their lasers to bear, trying to overwhelm the shield as they focus fire on Viridian and Max.

Indigo has posed:
    Indigo is already aiming for the teardrop's weapons systems when the Milano starts firing and shreds the weapons nodules. She grins happily and fires Star-Lord a big thumbs-up (which he's probably both too far away and too busy to see, but hey) with her one remaining hand. The other... well, looks like her weapons systems are no longer necessary, so her left arm rebuilds itself in its shield configuration and she soars through the vacuum toward the dropship. At a diameter of one-point-seven meters, the gravity shield emitting from her palm isn't at its most potent, but it should be more than enough to stop the simple wattage from a laser, and she flies without fear toward the drones to absorb as much of their fire as she can.

Viridian has posed:
    Blue lasers are at their most vicious. The few remaining drones enfilade Viridian and Max with their weapons fire in gleaming bursts of light. Indigo absorbs many but more slam into the diminishing red shield and the armor that is nwo glowing white hot all over the dolphin's torso.

Loyal Viridian drones launch themselves headlong into the enemy's fire, acting like ablative armour as they are blown away one by one. A barrage of further weapons fire has the shield flickering. Max floats into place in front of Viridian, absorbing any fire directed her way as armour begins to melt. Ablative armour sloughs off of the dolphin, slowly exposing the silvered skeleton of the robot's actual frame.
    "Max...!" Viridian takes a deep breath. "Missile pods. Just... Get us an entry way!" As pink armour is vapourized and melts off into space the dolphin's sides open up and a pair of anti-ship missiles are launched. A fin is blown away. Viridian and her frame fire a couple booster jets, taking up a place behind Indigo, safe from further weapons fire as the missiles deploy.
    "And then launch the special boarding package." A third pod, larger than the first two but still quite small, drops from the beleaguered dolphin. He's too big to hide from laser fire, even with Indigo's help. Even as Max's superstructure begins to fail a green plume of igniting methane-based propellant follows the missiles toward their target. The drone at the airlock.

Star-Lord has posed:
Star-Lord gets to play the Getaway Flyer and that's pretty dang awesome. He's okay with letting the CyberCouple get things handled by way of the rescue. "Psst. By the way, CyberCouple? If there's anything on there that looks, y'know, worth grabbing while you're saving the Princess? Go ahead and grab it. I'm sure The Broker could help us fetch a few units..."

Peter's thinking ahead, you see. Especially now that he's flying the Milano in a pattern to just keep an eye on things from the outside. He doesn't want any reinforcements swarming up on this piece.

Gothic Lolita has posed:
    For the moment, the Milano is safe enough, and keeping pace with the smaller ship, that appears to have slowed a little from the effects of the damage. Enough that he can easily stay on overwatch or close if they find anything they need to get back aboard.

    As Indigo charges forward with her shield in front of her, amid the lasers sparking off it, she slams right into the first drone, which sets off a chain reaction as it flies into the next two, then those into the ones behind them and so on! STRIKE! They lose their hold on the ship, going spinning off into space, which at least relieves some of the fire coming at Viri and Max.

    The two missiles streak past Indigo in wide arcs, then dip toward the ship, slamming solidly into the airlock as it's blown open, the pieces ripped clear by the outgassing of the internal atmosphere along with a few drones unlucky enough to be caught in the blast, right as the drop bear falls neatly down the hole, disappearing into the interior.

    Inside, it seems to be a largely automated ship, and the airlock is right over the cargo hold - efficiency over safety, apparently. The koala can clearly see a stack of variously shaped boxes in the cargo area, one of which is light enough that it goes flying right out the hole a moment later before the ship atmosphere is fully vented. There's a door leading forward, presumably to the bridge, and one leading aft to the engines.

    On the other side of the bay is a tall tube, standing about ten feet high and perhaps three across. It's made of a clear crystalline substance that's transparent, with the bottom and top capped with what looks like very powerful inertial dampers....enough that anything inside would have a hard time moving at all.

    She can also see the darkhaired girl inside. She's standing, frozen in place, having been posed so a parasol is open over her shoulder, burgundy and black to match the fancy looking dress she's wearing, the skirts open at the front to show her legs up to her mid thigh, even more so with the heels she's currently wearing. There's a console to the right of the tube that appears to be controls locking it in place on the floor.

    As the koala enters, the girl's dark eyes glow red, showing a circle with a vertical line through them as she strains a bit at the anti-kinetic field.

    Viri can hear through the Koala's system. <Oh, how adorable! Also, help?>
    

Indigo has posed:
    <<Looks like Peter gets his wish,>> Indigo thinks wryly as she flies into the dropship. She waves cheerfully at the being in the bottle (she assumes synthetic, because otherwise breathing would be a problem) before looking for setting off toward the bridge. She drops her shield configuration and, since no one's around, lets her arm take on the shape she's kind of embarrassed of: a mass of short, thick tentacles diverging from her elbows, the metal cables forming into leads tht plug into the dropship's ports and access its systems. She opens a quick channel to the Milano and, using the dropship's own broadcasting abilities since she can't rightly speak in a vacuum, sends, "Ship is under our control. Bring the ship around and we'll offload everything." It's not like her to be quite so terse with her words, but Indigo's careful not to use names on insecure channels. While she's at it, she stills the engines, downloads a cargo manifest, examines the ship's schematics for any parts the Milano or Viridian could use. These tasks require less than a second, and then she's disconnected from the dropship, arm reforming, ready to assist with moving boxes.

Viridian has posed:
    The little koal scampers through the hallway and over to the controls. It begins pushing buttosn furiously, large, dark eyes intent on the console i nfront of it. It is, however, a little awkward, clinging to the console stand while pressing things. Mistakes are made.
    "Access denied," intones a dull voice. The koala scowls and lets out a rumbling noise,bashing the console with its clawed paws.
    "Access denied," the voice repeats.
    Finally the koala lets out a howl of fury and drops from the console to the ground. The cacophonous wrenching sound of steel tearing and bolts springing echoes over the comms. The console as a whole iscrushed and then flung hard into the wall.
    A dying, wavering voice murmurs, "Access granted" and then, all at once, Gothic Lolita is free, the Koala staring up at her from its place on the floor.
    Viridian, meanwhile, is simply floating in space, ruthlessly stripping parts off of Max's smashed skeleton. It isn't anything she can't fix.

Gothic Lolita has posed:
    The transmission from Indigo brings the Milano closer as Peter pilots it close enough.to latch onto the smaller stricken ship, which makes it easy to start handing the boxes up through the hole for Indigo, especially with the low gravity. There's quite a haul aboard of valuables and some fairly hard to find pieces of technology, all handily packaged for transport. A good haul, overall!

    As the little koala bot goes postal on the console, there's a snap hiss of an energy field disappating as the lights on the top and bottom of the tub shut down, the field disappating. The girl sighs, lowering her parasol, then draws back a fist, before punching clean through the tube. CRASH! Pieces tinkle to the floor as she very daintily kicks out the bottom, then hops out to land, crouching down by the little drop bear. "My hero...." she says cheerfully, then carefully scoops him up in her free arm, fairly effortlessly absorbing the weight as she walks over to Indigo. "And you as well, than you very much." She lowers the parasol, performing a perfect curtsey, hand on her skirt. "I'm very much in your debt, fellow mecha. My name is Gothic Lolita, what should I call you and your little friend?" She reaches over to scritch Koalabot absently. "Or perhaps we should adjourn to your ship first?"

Indigo has posed:
    Gothic Lolita is the second priority. First one is sending an inquiry to Viridian for confirmation through their essentially one-way link that she's okay; but fortunately, that task is done in microseconds. Indigo greets with a shy smile and downcast eyes, "Hi, I'm Indigo. Was that your distress call we received? Please feel free to enter the Milano; you'll be safe and welcome there. And don't mind me if I take this time to load things onto the Milano. We're kind of between jobs right now and could use the salvage."

Viridian has posed:
    Viridan responds with an enthusiastic 'YES' to the inquiy from Indigo about her safety. She is working determinedly with a screwdriver, removing power cells and other minutiae from the wrecked Max Frame. Most importantly thegirl retrievesh is processor. The hardest part to replace. When this is done she loads the items into the exoskeleton's carrying pouches and then ignites he boosters to send her on a spiraling trajectory back toward the ship.
    Meanwhile the Koala hangs from Gothic Lolita's arm, blinking asi t loosk around. There are no words of greeting or other actiosn form the thign now. it clings patiently like Gothic Lolitah as become its eucalyptus tree. The bot is notably far heavier than he looks, at least one hundred pounds.

Gothic Lolita has posed:
    The dark haired mecha doesn't seem to really notice the weight of the koala hanging off her arm...it's as if she was snuggling a kitten, from the look of it. "Hello Indigo!" she says cheerfully. "It was my signal, yes. I'm fortunate you were able to intercept it with such a low powered transmission" She smiles a bit more at the other gynoid's shy smile, her internal HUD idly tagging her as "So Kawaii!" The Koalabot already has one labeled. "Cutest Hero Ever."

    Would you like assistance?" she offers. And will reach over to pick up one of the larger boxes, hefting it on her shoulder easily one armed. "I'm one of those people who is great for moving days."

     Between Lolita and Indigo, they can rapidly empty the ship and transfer the boxes aboard the Milano, with the koala gently deposited on top of the pile.

Indigo has posed:
    Indigo smiles at Gothic Lolita, without meeting her eyes (her gaze rests somewhere around Gothic Lolita's nose). "That would be very helpful. Thank you, Gothic Lolita." They make quick work of the cargo hold, and as soon as Star-Lord pulls away from the dropship, Indigo is out in the void, collecting Viridian in her arms to give a quick Eskimo kiss to Viri's faceplate--or what passes for one on that suit--before flying her and the remains of Max to the Milano. Once inside, Max gets a sad kiss too. Poor guy. Hims is her favritt.

Viridian has posed:
    The faceplate of a standard Xandarian spacesuit is a confurming, nearly skintight, forcefiled. Their noses almost touch and Viridian is grinning as she's being towed back to the ship, completely satisfied to be in Indigo's arms. Her hair shifts to cotton candy pink and she leans herself into the gynoid's embrace.
    The koala turns out tobe quite helpful. People start moving things in front of him and he hops down from the pile of loot and begins to pick up improbably large objects to add them to the collection. Though he be but small he is mighty. The koala makes the occasional squeak or roar as he works diligently alongside Gothic Lolita.

Star-Lord has posed:
Quill is keeping the Milano steady as there's all sorts of movement and transferring of cargo. Everything's happening so fast.

"Y'know, we're gonna' have to charge you extra for all this luggage! I thought this was a rescue not a vacation!"

Peter grins to himself with some kind of happy banter meter fulfillment before he just focuses on prepping to get them all out of here.

Indigo has posed:
    The Milano swings away into space, feeling well pleased with itself. No one is at a console to monitor the dropship's final transmission back to the Collector, who analyzes with great interest the data the ship's computer gathered, so it is missed.