4480/Special Delivery

Special Delivery
Date of Scene:	21 May 2018
Location:	Legion Cruiser
Synopsis:	Someone signed Mikh up to be a Legionnaire, apparently without his knowledge. But it was just what he wanted anyway!
Cast of Characters:	Mon-El, StarDrake

---

Mon-El has posed:
    Not long after Mikh had sent in his application to the Legion, he is contacted and invited up to the cruiser for an interview and a tryout. He is given coordinates that correspond to the ship's location in geosynchronous orbit--given his abilities it's assumed he can make it there under his own power. But, if that isn't the case for any reason, he was given contact information should the need arise.

StarDrake has posed:
Even in a relatively tiny universe like this one ... only encompassing a single galaxy, though one which is rather larger than the usual Milky Way Galaxy found in universes with a more distant horizon ... the speed of light is still the law, even if there are ways to cheat. The most common way is the series of jumpgates that bridge the spaces between civilizations.

There are a few faster ways to get things around though, like the one used by Cosmo, the telepathic master of the planetoid/dead space head of a celestial giant called Knowhere. This method is the courier ship Star*Drake, which Cosmo knows as Mikh Drakos, because the Star*Drake has a form of stardrive that is arguably one of the faster ones available.

Mikh has a package for someone aboard a ship located at a particular destination.
Note that Mikh Drakos didn't actually apply to join the Legion, at least, not so far as he remembers. (Cosmo took over one of his remote drone chassis.)

So, the Star*Drake appears out of warp about 260 meters from the Legion Cruiser.

It's a medium range courier vessel 500 meters long by 300 meters across, Alcubierre/Drakos dark-matter warp drive rings at 2/5, 1/2, and 3/5 from the front hull, with white paint and red go-fast stripes.

And it opens hailing frequencies, in the classic fashion.

"Star*Drake to Legion Cruiser, Package delivery from Knowhere."

And Mikh doesn't show just how rattled he was for 300 milliseconds, because he didn't know that the Legion was back-timed in this universe too.

Mon-El has posed:
    Lar Gand, otherwise known as Mon-El, is awaiting Drakos' arrival. So when the ship appeared and his presence is announced, the Daxamite isn't surprised, but when he states he is bringing some kind of package from Knowhere, this definitely confuses him.

    And makes him somewhat suspicious, given the supposed origin point.

    He hails Drakos' ship. << Legion Cruiser to Star*Drake, we were not expecting any sort of package, and especially not from that lawless oversized body part. Are you Mikh Drakos? >>

StarDrake has posed:
"Yes, that's me. Mikh Drakos. Are you Lar Gand?"

A bill of lading is sent in the sub-channel, listing out, among other things, a 56 gram sample of Kryptonian iron, sensitized with the psychic impression of a billion Kryptonian life-forms dying horribly imprinted on the layers of iron-55 threaded through the crystal structure of the metal, giving it a lovely green lambence.

"You sound like the Lar Gand I knew."

Mon-El has posed:
    << That I am. >> Lar replies as he examines the manifest. Well, not that it wouldn't be useful, but... << I'm sorry Drakos but the Legion cannot accept any product from Knowhere--we want nothing to do with anyone who profiteers by breaking laws and exploiting those who cannot defend themselves. However, that's not why you're here, is it? >>

    The hangar doors open, inviting the Star*Drake to dock and Mikh to board. But then, there's a slight shocked silence at the last part. << Wait, you know me? >>

StarDrake has posed:
Star*Drake moves to docking distance and a flexi-metal tube extends from the front-cabin section of the Star*Drake to the docking port. Air cycles, and a humanoid figure moves out, carrying a cargo net. To a deep scan or x-ray vision, it's either a spacesuit or battlesuit, or possibly a combat robot, because it doesn't show biological structures. The cargo net contains a single box, which contains a smaller box with a stasis-shield and the 30th century "Kryptonite" warning symbol, because even though it's not lethal to non-Kryptonians, it's still dangerous over time.

The figure nods to Mon-El, and a voice that only sounds synthesized to ears that can tell that no voicebox was used to create it, "I know three people who are your analogues in other universes. I'll return the other goods, but you need the green K to make your serum, don't you? It didn't come from Knowhere. I collected it on the way, per Cosmo's orders."

Mon-El has posed:
    Lar makes his way to the hangar to meet Drakos, watching him with curiosity and trying to drill his memory, but doesn't recall meeting him before. But it seems he knew other iterations of him, which doesn't come as a surprise. He extends a hand for a friendly shake. "Well, I hope you had a good opinion of me, and if you did I hope I live up to the expectations." he smiles politely.

    He examines the kryptonite, hesitating as he is not sure if he should trust Mikh or not just yet, but shrugs and takes it eventually. Someone can always check up on it before he uses it if need be. "Anyway, shall we get started? We'll head to the crew quarters for a short chat and then move on to the simulation. Sound good?"

StarDrake has posed:
"I beg your pardon? Simula..." Mikh pauses for just long enough to notice that he did so.

"The actual master of Knowhere is a telepathic dog from Earth who keeps it from degenerating into complete chaos and violence. He is also a total busybody. I assume you got a transmission from me applying for a position in the Legion. It would have been sent from Earth. I stashed a spare chassis -- robot body that is -- on Earth. And I suspect that someone used it to submit an application."

He shrugs, and the metal of his blank faceplate (reminiscent of Drake Burroughs - Wildfire's suit) warps and reforms into a human-like face instead. It moves like a regular human when he speaks.

"Well, telepathic space doggity isn't wrong. I would like to join. Or re-join."

Mon-El has posed:
    Lar arches a brow at Mikh's confusion. Then, he nods at the explanation. "Oh, well you should be glad -that- particular busybody is actually trying to help you, not hurt you." he says with a smile. "Though, maybe he could have at least told you the truth instead of sending you on a delivery job."

    He shrugs and starts inside toward the crew quarters, motion for Drakos to follow. "Anyway, in that case, we'll go ahead with the original plan." Assuming Mikh does accompany, Lar invites him to sit down in the lounge. "I mean...unless you want more time to prepare for the tryout?"

StarDrake has posed:
Mikh laughs. "Cosmo is Russian. He has a strange sense of humor. I am OK to do this now. To be honest, any Legionnaire should be ready to act at a moment's notice, no?"

The combat-bot follows along, and sits, using a grav-inhibitor to keep from breaking the furniture. It's not strictly necessary, but it's definitely safer.

"Did you have any questions first?"

Mon-El has posed:
    Lar chuckles. "You're right, they should, but we usually go a little bit easier on people for the tryout." he winks.

    The grav-inhibitor probably isn't really necessary, after all, some of this stuff is designed to withstand temper tantrums by some very powerful people. But yes, it is a safe bet.

    "Nothing too much," Mon-El waves a hand a bit dismissively. "Just the typical 'tell me about yourself, about your experience, and what you think you will bring to the team' type deal."

StarDrake has posed:
"All right. First, I trust you. I'll explain why in a moment. Second, I was born a human mutant on Earth 624 in the 1990s. My powers triggered when I hit puberty, as with many mutants. My mutation has been called several things, but technomage was the best description originally. I could possess machines, specifically vehicles. My body would repair damage by replacing the injured part with machinery before eventually reverting to flesh. That ended when the vehicle I was possessing was destroyed. I no longer had a flesh body. It wasn't a completely bad trade-off. I eventually ended up working on the SWORD satellite, when a world-killer robot came to visit. I stopped it by dragging it along a dimensional geodesic away from the universe before it could explode. And then I managed to survive the inter-universal void for just long enough to reach another Earth which was caught in an active universal collision. I reconstituted there, and met Brainiac 5, Saturn Girl, Lar Gand who went by the name Valor, and Phantom Girl. I helped them repair their LegionWorld spatial engine, then had to chase them across half the galaxy because they didn't know I wanted to go back with them. We ended up time-shifting along a timespace line that took us away from the split. After a while, I left to try to return to my original universe. I've been through six others, and met Legionnaires in two of those."

The best part of being a robot? You don't have to breathe.

"Any questions or clarifications?"

Mon-El has posed:
    "Well, I have to admit, that's a pretty impressive resume." Lar jokes lightly. "But let's get to the fun part and see what you can do in real time, yeah?" He gets up and moves over to the simulator, opening it up with the touch of button. "You ever run into any Dominators in any of the universes you've been in?"

StarDrake has posed:
"The fellows with the disks on their foreheads? Yes. They exist here too. Not my favorite people. They're too alike, and far too fond of controlling other people for their own personal gain."

Mikh scans the room, deciding not to interfere with the technology unless it puts someone else in danger. Dominators, huh. This might be fun ... for different values of the word.

Mon-El has posed:
    "Good, you're familiar with them. So you should ace this no problem, right?" Lar smiles, stepping into the control hub near the front of the room. He scrolls through different scenarios. "Hm, let's see...all right. Here we go!"

    The room darkens momentarily and then fills slowly with bright shapes that eventually form into snow-covered glaciers. A frigid wind howls across the terrain as the mission briefing comes up on an HUD in front of him, indicating that Imra Ardeen, otherwise known as Saturn Girl, has been kidnapped by Dominators and taken to a remote facility on this icy giant, where she is no doubt being experimented on and will eventually be 'euthanized' once she has filled her purpose. The job is simple: Rescue the founding member of the Legion at all costs, and before it's too late!

StarDrake has posed:
Ah, the 31st century virtual reality tech. It's been a while. Mikh adjusts his sensors to integrate better with the presentation system. Then he opens his mouth and a spray of very small machines spreads out, lifted and guided into the area at blazing speed, hollowing him out to a metal shell. The machine fog begins scanning for anomalous heat, for nuclear energies, for the characteristic signals of Dominator machinery that they think they cleverly hide. He spreads his awareness out into them and is for a moment spread out over what seems to be kilometers of space. Once he finds a trace, then he'll reassemble himself at the new location, and begin infiltration.

Mon-El has posed:
    On this giant ball of inhospitable ice, it's not hard to pick out the first signs of life and civilization, given there's not much of it here to begin with. So it doesn't take long for Mikh to find what is most unmistakably the Dominator facility. A series of flat, low-lying buildings that are probably partially underground due to the strong icy winds on this planet. Around the perimeter are five watchtowers with autoturret defense systems constantly sweeping their sectors in search of any unauthorized invaders.

StarDrake has posed:
Saturn Girl is a telepath, and one of her instances was the most powerful telepath on Titan, able to hold off psychic attack from hundreds of other, coordinated enemies, to bridge the Titan Defense Network. Mikh doesn't know if this instance is that strong, but he does know a trick that each of the others have, the ability to hear a faint mental voice from him where most telepaths cannot. Mikh is a ghost, an energy construct who builds bodies telekinetically, so he has no 'brain' to read with normal telepathy. The better telepaths can find him on the "astral plane" but most can't get past the web of machinery he creates to connect to the things he creates in the physical world. So she'll know he's here, but not necessarily who or what he is, since she hasn't met him in this universe.

He filters into the installation as part of a gust of drifting snow that comes up "naturally" ... eventually coalescing into a form that looks like a Dominator. He begins feeling out the machines around him, as well. Listening to the telemetry, feeling out the layout of the base, he identifies her location. Of course it's guarded. He has the dominator language on file. He can bluff his way past the low-rankers and the too-high. The middle rankers might be more of a problem. So he is in a humble role. He has a smallish disk, deliberately, acting like a menial laborer, cleaning up the messes that are too complex for the stupid robots. Ironic, that.

Mon-El has posed:
    Inside, the Dominators are busy with their experiments and hoping desperately to please the Primus Dom with their creations. As he floats in, a group of smaller and more bug-link lower castes scuttle by, not paying him much mind. Listening to telemetry, he can identify several multi-level labs where their various projects are going on, all branching off of one central, circular corridor that opens out of the end of the hallway he entered through.

    One thing is mostly certain--Imra has to be in one of those labs. But she's probably not the only victim here. A group of those middle rankers he was worried about pass by, dragging an unconscious alien to one of them--the indvidual appears mostly humanoid, though not likely of Earth.

StarDrake has posed:
SO Imra would be very unhappy if he saved her and not the others. This would be a problem. Fortunately, though, this facility is very high tech. As he cleans, he deposits small bits of metal and glass, mechanical focus points for his abilities, along power cables and in key locations. The central core of this unit is very like a spaceship. With some careful adjustment over the course of the next half hour, he can restructure part of the place into a viable drive, the rest into a craft, shifting his awareness from node to node in order to do the final restructuring. The rest of the facility should still function as a shelter for the Dominators, because killing them would not allow them to suffer for having failed.

Mon-El has posed:
    As the structure of the facility starts to change in subtle ways, the Dominators start to get suspicious that something is up. At first it seems the equipment is just malfunctioning, but none of the patterns make any sense. However, they have not seen any intruder alarms...

    Meanwhile, Mikh might have run into a problem. More than half of this building is underground...it would be impossible to tear it free without an immense amount of energy that is not currently available, and without causing massive structural damage to the entire thing. While he might be able to use his own powers to repair it or seal holes left by the parts of it that get torn off and left behind, that would mean some of the victims and even the Dominators themselves will get killed or trapped underground. The fact that the ground is frozen solid for miles below doesn't help, either. Although, as he is moving about, he does note that there are some shuttles sitting in a docking bay in the back that he easily commandeer, although they are not nearly large or numerous enough to save all the prisoners in one trip. Well, the mission's objective was to save Imra only, although the any of the others would certainly be a bonus.

StarDrake has posed:
Shoddy Dominator installation, poor workmanship. It's probably because they built this without other races as slaves. (Virtually that is. Totally something that the Legion has encountered in other instances, so it isn't like he can complain about it.)

This is now officially Irritating, and distracting, and that means it's time to turn the emotional responsometer down to one. It's unnerving to most people (even one out of three Brainiac 5 instances have said he needs to stop) but at least he's not turning it entirely off.

Spawning secondary and tertiary analysis processes. Configure alternatives analysis.

Primary goal: rescue Imra Ardeen/Saturn Girl.
Secondary goal, emergent: rescue remaining experimental subjects.
Complications: approximately 170 Dominator entities, living. approximately 24-30 experimental subjects, status unknown, presumed injured or disabled.

Three transport shuttles, capacity 5 persons. Central core of experimental hub, initial scan indicates sufficient material to modify into small driveless shuttle. Error/Revised capacity estimate, fifteen. Reject.
Alternative: experimental subjects are held in or near medical life-support pods, repurpose to combat-capable armor using shuttle components. Sacrifice primary chassis as AI supported piloted battle-armor for primary, with override to escape in emergency. Distribute selfPilot across remaining more vulnerable systems to minimize damage to system.

Repurposing transformation nodes. Iterator(captives).magnitude returns twenty-seven. Tertiary analysis confirms. Secondary analysis confirms with error case, ten experimental subjects in stasis or in medical hold. Will require combat model AI support.

Warning: 93% probability Dominators will notice and attempt to interfere with construction process.

Counter=strategy: simulate attack on base away from core. Draw off defense components. Deploy Khund and Shiar signaling patterns to convince Dominators of risk factor.

Execute/now.

The modifications to construct a ship are abandoned 32 seconds into the process. Nanoforges accept new templates and begin re=printing the materials. The support-systems-to-be are quickly re-formed into armor-pod components.

Before the laborers can become aware, there are shudders and alarms from three equally-spaced perimiters, indicating incoming attacks.

Mon-El has posed:
    The slow attempt at transforming the facility into a ship had sort of drawn some concern, but the sudden reformatting of the life support pods definitely draws the Dominator's attention. Alarms screech, and their forces are definitely divided between the intended diversion and the transforming pods. Since the apparent alien attack seems more likely to need firepower, most of the fighter castes are sent away from the labs to respond to that, while the more technical types remain behind and try to figure out what's happening to the pods and/or how to stop it, although they don't have much success. It's just...happening so fast and they're not even sure what they're turning into in the first place. Some of them try to destroy the pods before the transformation can reach completion using failsafe self-destruct mechanisms, which Mikh can -hopefully- disable before they go off and kill any test subjects that might be trapped within.

    As for Imra, she appears to be unconscious inside one of the pods, surrounded by a sea of machinery in lab 5. A couple of scientists or technicians are in there with her, likely busy with their usual unethical experimental practices.

StarDrake has posed:
Twenty-seven prisoners being experimented on. Seventeen of them are conscious. Fourteen of those remaining are not pacifists. The imposter among the Dominator laborers moves out of sight as the others scurry around like some kind of roaches, and dissolves into a swarm of small to microscopic robotic machines. Failsafe mecanisms with explosives and poisons are part of the schematic. They're already in the design as components for weapons to use, mostly for defense of course. The force-shield functions of the armor are not quite as impenetrable as a certain green-skinned fellow uses, but they're good enough.

Any Dominators who attempt to interfere with the pod-transformations are subjected to whatever combination of taser, anti-personnel gas, and sonics required to put them to flight.

Two seconds later, the swarm moves into the room where Imra Ardeen is being held. Any machines that might be suppressing her powers begin coming apart into their components, as the ghost of the machines reaches into them with his power, and a medical system begins the takeover of the dominator devices keeping her sedated.

Mikh dedicates an entire two threads to attempts to revive her. If that fails, the AI can take her to safety. He has to start swapping into the other medical pods.

Mon-El has posed:
    Try as they might to activate the failsafes, the Dominators find that they do not function as intended, given they are too late! Instead, the transformed pods open fire, sending the technicians running for cover. Those who dared fight back with sidearms or whatever they could find just end up getting pulverized. They were not fighters, and they definitely weren't prepared for this. Well, perhaps this was a more merciful fate than getting eaten by Primus Dom as punishment for failure.

    When Mikh arrives in lab 5, the Dominators present pick up weapons and try to shoot indiscriminately at the nanoswarm, likely to no effect. But what else could they do? Meanwhile, Mikh manages to successfully disable any machinery keeping Saturn Girl sedated and confined. She falls out of the pod, finally free, but seems a bit shaky as she pushes herself up off of the floor...

StarDrake has posed:
The problem with a swarm is that it's a swarm. The shots damage a small part of it, but bits of it pull together to reflect and deflect additional shots, while the pod sprouts tentacles that fly out at the Dominators like flocks of Coluan treesnakes.

(Trees that are snakes. Radioactive snakes. Colu is a vile place.)

The swarm collects rapidly around Saturn Girl, forming supports, projecting defensive force-fields, and generally becoming a suit of armor that Tony Stark would be proud of.

<<Imra. You are safe now. I am a friend...>> in case this is actually the real Saturn Girl helping with the scenario, rather than a simulation. Mikh is also signalling the system that he's making this communication, to cover all the bases, of course.

And once that's accomplished, the armor collective begins moving UP, through the centroid to the weak spot.

Of course there's probably a defensive gun below. But you can't rely on the Dominators to be so generous as to just gift you with such a thing. Mikh's prepared to move the entire group to the side corridors at nanosecond notice.

Mon-El has posed:
    The Doms fire haplessly at the swarm until they run out of ammo, dropping the weapons and making a run for it. They know they'll be devoured for failing their projects, but whoever this enemy is might have something worse in store if they have determined not to kill them right now.

    Imra is surrounded by the swarm of nanotech as it starts to form a suit around her. But...despite Mikh's indication that he is a friend, she seems distressed, staring wildly about in search of whoever is speaking to her. She reaches out with her mind in an attempt to learn this stranger's true intentions, but in her distraught state of mind, she just ends up overwhelmed by the sheer volume of activity, with Mikh spreading himself so thin and trying to do so many tasks at once. << Who are you?? What do you want with me?! >> She struggles against the tech trying to lift her up and build the suit around her, trying to wrest herself from it.

StarDrake has posed:
Primary Objective is abreactive. Subconscious telekinetic disruption is interfering. Legion recognition signs differed across universes, so is likely to be incorrect here. Provide uncluttered access for 4 seconds, engage full AI on the escape group. /secondary confirms /tertiary confirms. Engage.

<<I am a Legionnair from another universe. The Dominators have held you in an experimental pod for at least a day. I'm here to get you out. There are other prisoners. Please let me armor you so you can escape.>>

The other prisoners are being moved as quickly as possible out of the prison. They can be extracted within three minutes, but this is taking perhaps too long. It might turn into a fight.

Mon-El has posed:
    << A Legionaire? But.... >> Imra hesitates a moment, but then she shakes her head, her eyes blazing with anger. << No! This...this isn't real...this is just another trick! I told you, I won't fall for this! Get out of my head, all of you! Get out of my head, get OUT OF MY HEAD!! >>

    A psychic shriek bursts out from the Titanian, her psyche pushing itself to its limits in an attempt to purge all other presence from the area. Grisly images of one's worst nightmares from the past, present, and potential future erupt into the minds of everyone in the building all at once--how Mikh deals with this is yet to be seen, but the prisoners escaping in the transformed armor suits as well as any Dominators left in the facility immediately double over in pain and agony...the sensory overload is too much. If it keeps up for long, they will either die or be rendered permanently comatose.

StarDrake has posed:
Did Mikh have a plan for this? Not as such. This is one that he's got a long-standing procedure for, instead. Perhaps he was too hopeful thinking that Imra would be able to keep out the Doms. Then again his own defense against psi attack is to reset his brain. The force-field on the other armor becomes opaque to psionics, which should reduce the effect, while the AI in each suit remains linked and activates the coordinated boosts. They WILL be getting away.

"That's enough, Imra. You're killing them, and you'll hate yourself if you do that," Mikh's voice says, a flat buzzing rather than a fully formed voice. It's his own equivalent of a painful rasp, and it's clear he's in pain if she can feel it, or if the sim is able to detect that. There is one piece of equipment that was clearly in place, the one that woke Imra in the first place. It has a deadman switch that requires an effort to keep open, and Mikh lets go of it, allowing the sedative transdermal spray from the medical system to engage. Titanians have a drug used for when their people are having uncontrolled attacks, and Mikh has the formula, and it's in the medkit.

Mikh takes a moment to try to shake off the pain.

Mon-El has posed:
    The shields are effective at least somewhat--it's enough to get the other prisoners out of here before Saturn Girl can liquify their minds. Although the Doms aren't quite so lucky, as her psychic assault continues to press against them, given they are unprotected.

    << No...nonono...stop it, stop it...j-just kill me...please... >> Imra's thoughts are jumbled and panicked and projecting everywhere randomly. Tears well up in her eyes even as the drugs start to kick in. They don't knock her out completely, but she seems to calm down somewhat at least, the shrieking receding slowly.

    Finally after what seems like an eternity she stops struggling against the nanoswarm. << ...you...know me? >>

StarDrake has posed:
<<I know a version of you from another universe. Three universes, actually. Now we need to get you out of here and back to your friends.>>

The armor forms up and the ceiling evaporates and reforms behind them as they rocket up and out.

Mon-El has posed:
    Once Mikh has successfully secured Imra, a computer voice signals that the scenario has been completed, and the holographic images melt away into darkness before the icy planet is once again just an empty and barren simulation room.

    Lar emerges from the control hub. "Well I have to say, you handled that pretty well, Mr. Drakos. Since you had more experience than most people do, I thought I'd give you a bit more of a challenge over the usual fare. But, it seems you were well-prepared for the unexpected. I'll have to talk to Laurel about this but I don't see any reason why she'd object to you joining." he smiles.

StarDrake has posed:
Mikh resumes having a face, and grins widely.

"That's great! I'm looking forward to getting to know you guys."

Mo complaints about how hard it was, because really, it was challenging but not impossible. He'll bring up the whole "Cosmo still needs me to deliver stuff and to ride herd on Quill sometimes" thing later. Perhaps he can get into the Espionage team so it won't mess up things too bad.

Mon-El has posed:
    "And we're excited to have you." Lar replies, extending a hand to shake once more. "It was good to meet you. You should be hearing from us soon."