8950/A Royal Family Matter

A Royal Family Matter
Date of Scene:	25 August 2019
Location:	Theseus - Attican Beta
Synopsis:	The Legion sets out on a 'diplomatic' mission to help Lar reconcile with the Daxamite Royal Family, but things get messy when when Tyran'tar, Grail, and the Guardians of the Galaxy become involved.
Cast of Characters:	Mon-El, Tyran'tar, Brainiac 5, Invisible Kid, Star-Lord, Grail, Gamora

---

Mon-El has posed:
    The Legion's 21st century chapter is headed for Attican Beta, a system on the fringes of Nova Corps space, to meet with Lar's somewhat-estranged family. We say that because the last time he saw them, they hadn't exactly parted ways on the best of terms. But some of the...conversations he'd had lately had brought him to the point of hoping, just maybe, to make things right with them.

    He hadn't really wanted his friends to come with him. Because this was certainly a Daxamite family matter, something he didn't really want to burden them with, but of course they'd insisted. So the whole team is once again aboard the Legion's capital ship, on a hopefully 'diplomatic' mission.

    Anyway, as far as anyone knows, Queen Rhea had indicated that she and her people were currently looking for a suitable colonizable world somewhere in the aforementioned system, having recently dispatched scouting parties to Theseus, the 5th planet from the system's blue radiant star.

Tyran'tar has posed:
    The Green Lantern corps had been alerted by the Daxamite's desire to settle and thus dispatched a represenative to help the daxamites do just that. Tyran'tar flew into the system, his own ship nearby in the event he needed to evacuate people but he was faster then his ship. He flies at near lightspeed, slowing down once entering the system and was approaching the fifth planet. His scans indicate a capital ship of unknown tech and design in the area but according to communications and reports, it belonged to a group calling themselves the legion of superheroes. He flies past it and begins to head planet side.

Brainiac 5 has posed:
Brainiac 5 is seated on the bridge of the cruiser, surrounded by holographic readouts of the ship's systems as it makes its way toward its destination. The Legion cruiser is a peculiarly shaped-ship, with a bridge connected to the main body of the ship by an elongated neck, and elegant engines on either side and at the rear. ...It looks an awful lot like one of the old Klingon D-7 cruisers, if friendlier.

"On the approach now--" He studies a readout. "Hm. A Green Lantern. If the Nova Corps shows up we could find ourself caught between the imaginary authority of two self-appointed police powers.'

Invisible Kid has posed:
    Of course, almost any family matter involving one Legionnaire ends up involving several--certainly Lyle thinks of the Legion as his family, moreso than his actual biological relatives.  It can be left as an open question as to whether he asked to accompany Mon-El, or just assumed that of course this would be a team affair.  Knowing Lyle, he probably tried to maneuver Lar in to asking because that way would be easier for everyone... and because he's that kind of sneaky and manipulative.
    It might even have been as easy as telling his leader, "It'll be easier for everyone if you just ask us to come with.  That way you're not going to be surprised when you find out we're here anyway."
    Yeah, as if he would ever be so direct and straightforward.  Lyle wouldn't buy it either.
    He looks up at Brainy's announcement, and immediately assigns himself the job of checking to see if anyone else is in the area, darting over to the security station.  "We'll hope not for now, but I know our luck," he says, bringing up long-range scanners.

Star-Lord has posed:
The Guardians of the Galaxy had been working around Nova space for a few weeks now. There was a border incident recently on the far end of their territory involving a number of bounty hunters, but they've been off grid since. At least until now.

The jump point into the Attican system opened, and the Milano popped out of it. Why were the Guardians here? Who knows.

On the bridge of the Milano, Star-Lord was watching the holomap of the system, including the Legion cruiser and the Green Lantern, "The frak is a Lantern doing out here?" Star-Lord muses aloud. "I thought they tended to leave Nova alone." He shrugs in the pilot seat, before he turns the ship, heading for Attican Beta. Star-Lord had a contact there he needed to consult in person.

Grail has posed:
The sound of a boomtube opening up on Tyran'tar ship comes soon after he leaves. Grail steps out on to the ship and looks around with a frown. She went all the way to Earth and found not a single trace of anyone called Kal-El. Sure, she found a few interesting things and might go back but that's hardly the point. Now, she wants to find this Mon-El again and hurt him. Was this a wild goose chase?! Either way, she looks out in time to see Tyran'Tar speeding away and then sees more ships in the area. She considers this a moment before looking specifically at the Daxamite cruiser.

Her eyes narrow at it and then she brings up her wrist a moment before pushing some buttons.

Moments later, on a very confused Daxamite ship, a boomtube opens and out steps Grail right into their ship, her hands clenching and her eyes narrowed, "Alright, where would one find a Daxamite named Lar?" She asks and looks at the nearest person, "I'd recommend telling me. I've had a very trying month and my idea of fun right now is rather...violent." She chuckles and gives a slightly disconcerting grin.

Mon-El has posed:
    The cruiser jets toward Theseus, a planet about 2/3 the size of Earth and much colder, but certainly not lacking in living things. Covered mostly in glaciers and tundra-like terrain, the flora and fauna there thrive amidst cold, dry climates.

    Lar is also on the bridge, checking the long range scanners with Lyle and Brainiac. A Lantern, and...the Milano? What exactly were -they- doing here? Not that he had anything in particular against either of them, but he can't say he wouldn't rather them just not get involved in this...complicated and potentially dangerous venture.

    As the ship approaches orbit of the planet in question, the one blip that was expected does appear, that of a Daxamite flagship also sitting in orbit. He exhales audibly. "Well, they're here all right." he remarks, as if he'd halfway been hoping they wouldn't be or something. "Let's get this over with." At this, he heads for the airlock.

    When Grail suddenly teleports onto said flagship, she is met with at least a dozen members of the Daxamite Royal Guard, their weapons raised and ready to defend themselves and their people. Although since she does not attack herself yet, neither do they. One of them frowns when she asks about Lar. "The crown prince is not here." He says, narrowing his eyes at her. "What do you want with him?" he demands.

Brainiac 5 has posed:
Brainy perks an eyebrow, and then says, "Small dimensional anomalies opening and closing on--" He raises an eyebrow. "Interesting." He skips his fingers along a holographic interface, and then studies the energy readouts, before he perks up at Lar and then says, "Mon-El... do you or your mother have any grievances with anyone with the capability to open boom-tube technology?"

He relaxes, in in his seat. "Well, nothing's exploded yet."

Invisible Kid has posed:
    "Funny word, 'yet'," Lyle remarks without looking up from the scanner station.  "Scanning for any weapons systems powering up, Lantern energy, any more boom tubes... I'm starting to think it'll be easier to pick things to *not* scan for."

Star-Lord has posed:
Invisible Kid is probably correct, because when boom-tube technology is detected in use somewhere, Star-Lord brings up the shields... because there's no way he was interested in /those/ a-holes getting on his ship.

He powers weapons as well, just for good measure, but it's clear the Milano isn't targeting anyone specific from scans... simply going to their equivalent of yellow alert.

"I don't think I want to know what the frak these people are doing here, but hopefully they're not going to blow up the city on the way down." Star-Lord grumbles as he starts to pilot the Milano towards the planet, rapidly catching up to the Legion cruiser.

Tyran'tar has posed:
    Tyran'tar flies back off the planet and tries to open a communication line with both the Daxamite royal ship and the legion cruiser. "I am Tyran'tar of the green lantern corps. The green lantern corps has heard of your desire to colonize another world and sent me here to help you settle negotiate with any indigenious species. I came personally due to my relationship with prince Lar."

Grail has posed:
A grin comes to Grail's face as weapons are trained on her and she clenches a fist, "Oh my, I hope those little weapons of yours are good." She states as she looks from one to the other before she looks to the one talking, "Finally, someone who can get to the point." She nods her head and points at him, "Call your prince. I would have words with him. He gave me a message and now I'm here to give it back." She states and then crosses her arms, looking from one guard to the other.

As she seems to settle in to wait, she looks to the nearest guard and looks at his weapon, "Tell me, how strong are those weapons? I'm somewhat curious. On a scale of one to ten. One being a thrown rock and ten being a ship's cannon, give me an idea." She smirks slowly.

Mon-El has posed:
    Lar turns back momentarily when Brainiac asks the question. "Huh? Boomtube tech?" he frowns. "No, not that I know of...why?" Ugh. He's suddenly getting the feeling that this is about to get a lot more complicated. He shakes his head. "We'll figure that out later. I'm going planetside. I'd rather you stay on the ship but..." he shrugs. "Can't exactly stop you all from following anyway, so." Out he goes, and he starts flying down to the surface. But as he gets closer, he notices that Theseus was actually already pretty populated. Almost directly below him, a city is--oh -no-. He clicks on the commlink. << Guys... >>

    Meanwhile, as Star-Lord approaches the planet on the Milano, he'll also pick up on the fact that Theseus seems to be populated by intelligent beings, even if they haven't figured out space travel or subspace communications yet. As he makes his way toward the coordinates where he was to meet with his contact...well, it looked like a war zone. Or maybe the right word as 'massacre zone'.

    When Tyaran'tar announces his presence to the Daxamites, he is not quite met with the same polite manner. A rather haughty-sounding female answers him. << This is Queen Rhea Gand of Daxam. We did not request the Lantern Corps' assistance in our colonization efforts, and my son Lar has not been with us for quite some time. So please-->> She stops in the middle suddenly, as if having been interrupted by something, before continuing. When she comes back on, she sounds a bit more suspicious. << ...just stay out of our way, Tyran'tar. >>

    On the ship, the captain of the guard shakes his head, scoffing a bit. "Trust me, we have tried that before. He is not at our beck and call. You had best search for him elsewhere." A brow goes at up at her questions regarding the weapons. "A thrown rock." he says with an insincere shrug.

Brainiac 5 has posed:
    "That was unusually flip of him." Brainy says, "You know, we did swear an oath." He gets up, and then says, "Ah well." He steps away from the captain's chair, conjures up a holographic computer panel, and then says, "Lyle, the bridge is yours." A shimmering electric-blue gateway opens in front of him with an electric crackle, and he steps through it, before its twin appears on the bridge of the Daxamite ship, with Grail between Querl and all of those guns.

"Excuse me." he says, "Someone here opened a Boom Tube--I'm guessing it's you--" He gives Grail a look, "And I'm investigating directly. We seem to have stumbled upon a scene of galactic conquest, as the Daxamite Monarchy has stumbled across an occupied world and settlement has turned into colonization. So please, stand down."

Tyran'tar has posed:
    Tyran'tar turns back to the planet. He had tapped into whatever computers the planet had if any to ascertain the situation. He flies to the planet when his scans pick up someone was flying down. He flies over to the entity his scan detected to see who it is. "Your people have no love for alien species do they?" He asks to Lar's comlink, holding back the shock and rage of seeing a people be massacred. He then looks to the daxamite. "Give me a good reason to let this happen." He says as looks to the invading force, memories flashing back in his own mind about his people being massacred by the citadel. He waits long enough for lar to speak if he does.

Invisible Kid has posed:
    Lyle gets as far as "You rotten green--!" before he remembers two things: one, someone *does* need to stay with the cruiser, and two, either Brainy or Mon-El might have their communicators open-air.
    With comms muted for the moment -- he's listening in, but his mic is off -- he's scanning all ships.  He's also calculating targeting on anyone else's weapons ports, although not targeting them yet.  No reason to make everyone more uptight than they already are.  Also, the cruiser's own shields are on a hair trigger, ready to come up at the slightest reason.
    What he wishes he knew were -- beyond the would-be colonizing effort -- everyone's intentions.  The /Milano/ and her crew are not unknown, but their purpose here is.  What Grail wants is anyone's guess.  Whether Rhea and her people knew this planet was inhabited... well,they probably did and just didn't care.
    Too damn many variables.

Star-Lord has posed:
"Great." Star-Lord mutters as he takes the Milano down.

Underverse brokers like the one Peter is here to talk to tend to plan for when military or police show up, and he's expected. There's a good chance he'll be picked up on the way down, prompting a response.

Still, it might pay to investigate that massacre, see what's what. People have been known to pay a nice galactic credit bounty for information on those sort of movements.

Moments later, and the Milano is touching down, landing gear expanded. "He's down here somewhere, Gamora. If whoever did this is still here, I'm gonna need you to run interference while I search for the bunker." Peter informs Gamora on the bridge.

Grail has posed:
A look at the guard and the Grail grins at the Captain, "I wouldn't recommend using those weapons then, unless you want me to break them." She then looks over in a blink at the arrival of the green man. She looks him over a moment and then hmms, "Well, that was a neat little trick. Now, who ware you telling to stand down? The guards or me. If you are talking to me...you had better be able to back it up." She then blinks and looks back at the Daxamites, "Conquest? Well, I do like conquests." She nods her head, "People often are very grateful for being saved from would be oppressors...and I have a special hatred for oppressors."

Her right hand slides to her hip and up she slides a piece of metal with something folded against it. She flicks her wrist and the blade of a scythe flips open, "So, I recommend stopping with the oppressing or I'll just have to help the side of the oppressed." She shrugs, "Nothing personal, just really hate my father and anyone like him. Find it all distasteful." She points the weapon, "So, who do I talk to about whether or not your whole ship wishes to stop invading or stop living?"

Gamora has posed:
"Peter, tell me you're not setting down in a war zone." Gamora replies exasperatedly over the comm. Heading for the lower hatch, she pauses a rack of energy weapons. Selecting one of the larger rifles with a low sigh, she checks the sword at her hip.

She steps towards the hatch, listening for the sounds of the gear compressing. The hull decompresses with a series of hissing and popping. There is a low whine as the rifle powers up, then she smacks the quick-release hatch button and steps out cautiously.

"Okay, Peter. I'm out..."

Mon-El has posed:
    Over on the Daxamite flagship, yet -another- stranger simply -teleports- onto it! Seriously? The guards tense up again, their eyes shifting over to Brainiac 5. As the two of them speak, apprehension turns into anger, and there is a faint red glow that starts in his eyes. "Listen, whoever or whatever you are, this does -not- concern you. Nor does it concern you, Coluan." he says, looking between the both of them. "Now I suggest you--"

    But he is interrupted when Rhea herself steps into the room and moves in front of him. "That's quite enough, Keller." she says calmly. "I'll handle it from here." She then looks pointedly at Grail and Brainiac. "Intruders, this is your last chance to leave and get out of business that is not yours." she threatens. "I have no quarrel with you, and if you were wise you would keep it that way."

    Lar sighs at Tyran'tar's question. << No, they don't, unfortunately. Frankly, I didn't used to either. >> he admits. << And there isn't a reason, because you shouldn't. But you should let me handle this. As powerful as you Lanterns are, you might be a bit out of your league, here, and I don't want you getting hurt on my account. >> With that, he flies the rest of the way down to the surface....

    Speaking of down on the surface, the Daxamite military is in the process of slaughtering the natives of a nearby city. Natives who are definitely intelligent, if nowhere near as advanced. Flattening buildings, vaporizing/squishing the indigenous people as if they were mere insects using their advanced weaponry and blue-star-induced powers. As soon as Peter and Gamora show up, a group of soldiers immediately confront the Guardians.

    "Halt! Who are you and what is your business here?" they demand.

Brainiac 5 has posed:
"Yes." Brainiac 5 says, before he crosses his arms, and says, "I have no sense of humor for any part of this."

He adds, speaking plainly, "My name is Brainiac Five. I am not making suggestions, I am dictating demands. You will all stand down, or I will order my ship to adjust this system's star to a red wavelength for a protracted period."

Then he radios the cruiser. "...Lyle, if they don't comply in 30 seconds, please fire one of my solar charges at the system's star, for a red-shift refraction..."

"It's not actually altering the temperature of the star, it's actually a sort of temporary nanofilter particulate with a high level of resistance to heat, that filters the light generated by the star -- quite brilliant. I developed it as a countermeasure agaianst Daxamite and Kryptonian planetary invasions *much like this one*."

Invisible Kid has posed:
    "You're taking lessons from Saturn Girl, Brainy," Lyle radios back, "I was about to ask for the right adjustments to interfere with the solar radiation around here."
    He doesn't need orders to also set up the weapons array to protect the charge from any attempts at interference.  It'll get where it needs to be.

Tyran'tar has posed:
    Tyran'tar looks to the Lar and he nods. He then taps into the guardian's frequency. "Daxamites are superpowered under this sun." He warns as he flies after the guardians. As he flies to where the guardians are, he forms a grenade launcher construct in his hands and fires at the daxamites. He also wills a forcefield around peter and Gamora so they can actually take a hit from the daxamites and not be affected by the grenade's blast.

Star-Lord has posed:
They're seriously going to point their weapons at the Milano? Luckily, Peter has some slug throwers... with lead ammo. He grabs one on the way out of the Milano, and walks out the same hatch, moving up just to the side of Gamora. He's got two sub-machine guns in both hands. "Right. I figured we'd get your attention." Peter smiles and gives a wave.

"So. We're not actually here for you, but if you don't stop this invasion, we're gonna be forced to intervene, because we don't want the sentient we're looking for killed by your frakups." Peter gestures to Gamora, "We're the Guardians of the Galaxy. I'm Star-Lord. She's Gamora." He smirks to the soldiers, "Trust me. You don-"

Then, the grenade launcher is fired, and Peter looks up to the Lantern, "and now the Lantern is getting in the way?" Peter growls, "Have I mentioned how much I hate the Greens?"

Grail has posed:
A blink as Rhea appears and she idly gestures at the woman with her scythe, "Blah blah blah blah." She looks to Braniac 5 and then looks to Rhea again, "You two are really hard to hear and understand." She gestures at the two guards to the right, "These two won't stop screaming about their legs and I just can't understand what either of you are saying."

Of course, the two guards to her right aren't currently screaming about their legs at all but then Grail is moving at a speed that would likely make even the Daxamites blink. She's fast. Like...really fast. She uses that speed combined with all the training she's gotten from both time and effort to whip her scythe right across at calf level toward the two guards like she were working the wheat harvest. She uses that movement to spin her whole body around to stare back at the Queen and grin darkly as she does.

She points the weapon right at Rhea as she finishes and says, "Leave this planet...now..." Her eyes begin to glow as well, though her whole eye glows as she states, "Or else I'll stop using my scythe and start getting serious..."

Gamora has posed:
    Gamora lowers the blaster rifle, turning in the general direction of the closest Daxamite soldiers before slinging it back over her shoulder. Shifting her weight to the left, she gives the soldiers a look that's somewhere between impatience and annoyance.

    She looks at Peter, then. "Right. We're here looking for someone." she declares, hand lowering to the hilt of her sword. "And right now-..."

    Gamora looks up as the grenade launcher fires and the Lantern throws down the force field. She groans loudly. "Are you KIDDING me?"

    She draws the sword Godslayer, gaze narrowing at the Daxamites. "... -you're in the way."

Mon-El has posed:
    Rhea glances at her men, looking apprehensive at first. Is he bluffing? No...that's not likely. If anyone is capable of doing something like that, a Coluan is. "Your ship, you say? This ship?" A holographic image of the space surrounding them comes up, including the Legion cruiser and a couple of other Daxamite warships. "What makes you think we couldn't just tear it to pieces before you could ever manage to fire it off? And what, pray tell me, made you think we didn't come prepared for some meddling fools to interfere for the sake of -insects-?" She brings up another feed, this one of her -other- son, who seems to be restrained in some kind of force field cell. "Ah, poor Del. So desperately jealous of his brother--he was too eager at even the -slightest- prospect of immunity to our poison." she says, sighing. "Even if it drove him mad, at least it worked." As Grail slashes at the guards with her scythe, they recoil, moving just as fast as she is, although it does cut into their armor.

    Rhea glares at her. "Fine, have it your way!" The queen shouts angrily, stepping back herself as the guards charge at Grail and Brainiac. On the screen that is still up, the shields around Del drop and he shoots out, his eyes wild with rage. Within seconds, he's out of the airlock and headed -straight- for the cruiser practically at the speed of light. Lyle now has a choice. Raise the shields, or fire the refractor. Or perhaps he can manage both in time? Maybe math is on his side. Maybe...

Mon-El has posed:
    Down on the ground, Tyran'tar's grenade explodes, throwing the group of soldiers backward. And then there's a shield in front of them, blocking them from Peter and Gamora. They glare at the Lantern. "You! You were told to stay out of our business!" Two of them fly at him at this, one of them letting loose with the laser vision and the other just flat out charging him with a fist cocked!

    The other two try to get around Lantern's shield so they can wail on Peter and Gamora, despite the Guardians clearly having lead weapons. They are soldiers, prepared to lay down their lives for their people. But almost at the same moment, Lar arrives on the scene, landing near Peter. "Star-Lord, please, don't do this." he says, seeing the lead. "They have families. I know this is terrible, but killing more in response to killing is no way to resolve anything. They were raised this way. Let me handle this..."

Brainiac 5 has posed:
Brainiac 5 looks up, and then says, "Queen Rhea, you chose to call my bluff--" He studies the guards as Grail attacks them, and then they move to defend themselves, and then he says, "It's a poor monarch who gambles with the lives of her subjects. It's an ungenerous soul who sees the works of another species, their poetry, their art, their science, and sees only an inconvenience to be *swept away*."

He holds his hands up, and says, "...Lyle, raise your shields, there's a Daxamite incoming to tear the cruiser apart."

Invisible Kid has posed:
    And there's the reason Invisible Kid had the shields powered up and ready to go.  He knows how long it will take Brainy's sun-bomb to clear the shield radius, slaps the fire button and barks, "SHIELDS!" at the computer.
    Multitasking for the win -- or at least for survival.
    In whatever few seconds he has left, he sees what he can do about reinforcing defenses before Incoming Daxamite (presumed not Lar) gets here.  "Brainy, I need a quick calculation to reconfigure ship's energy beams to duplicate the right solar wavelengths to stop my visitor, please and thanks."  Yeah, he could get it off the computer.  No, getting it from Brainy would be faster.

Star-Lord has posed:
When Mon-El drops down nearby, Peter gives him a decidedly irritated look, "You want this to stop? Get them to back off. I have business here, and these a-holes are going to kill my contact." Peter aims one of his guns right where the soldiers will be coming around, ready to shoot. "The people here have families too. I don't see you crying over them."

Peter gives Lar a side glance, "What's it gonna be, Lar? You have until they get around that Lantern shield. We didn't come here to fight a war, but I'm not gonna cry over it."

Grail has posed:
A blink as she notes the queen backing off but she is still prepared for the others, "Have it your way lady." She then grins as she looks in Rhea's direction and her eyes blast, full wide open. The beam coming from her eyes is no Kryptonian or Daxamite heat vision. These are full on Omega Beams and they seem to be aimed for Rhea, but before they can even make it that far, they alter their direction to literaly turn at a perfect angle, turn again and then blast right into one of the guards nearby.

She then whips her blade around and aims to slice into an incoming guard and grins wildly, "Do you even know what it is you face?!" SHe laughs out loud as she slices.

Mon-El has posed:
    Rhea does not seem at all fazed when the beams come at her, neither is she disconcerted when they change change angles, either. She just sort of stands back there, all haughty and composed as she watches her men duke it out against the strangers. She steps back further, and a shield suddenly appears in front of her, cutting the rest of the room off. There is a clanking noise, and that section of the ship is suddenly jettisoned.

    Grail's beam strikes Keller, the captain, sending him into a wall that dents significantly, although he still gets back up and responds with his own thermal vision right at her face. Her scythe digs into the chest armor of another guard who is charging her--he grunts but continues, aiming to smash her right through the wall and into the cold void of outer space. Two others try to get at Brainiac, but quickly realize that he has some kind of personal shield and end up slamming into that instead.

Brainiac 5 has posed:
Brainiac 5 stands, unmoved, his personal force-field shimmering and appearing, briefly, as the Daxamite guards strike it. He fixes them with a look, and then says, "You fail to understand, I have confidence in my fellows and their ability to react under stress. It's when they're not under stress that my confidence ebbs."

He shrugs. "I never bluff."

Mon-El has posed:
    Lyle manages to get the calculations right, the refractor particles just clearing the shield as it comes up abruptly. The crazed Del just starts wailing hard on the shield, trying to simply bludgeon his way through it! But it's not long before the particles reach their destination and disperse, the wavelengths the Daxamites depend upon for their power slowly but surely disappearing.

    Down on the ground, Lar sighs...Peter has a point. "Please, there must be a better way to--" He turns to face his own people as they come around the shield, but just as they do, the sky suddenly turns red, and they falter before he and the Guardians as the red wavelengths begin to sap their powers.

    Even as all this is happening, Lyle and Brainiac might pick up on some serious energy spikes in the corona of the star as the particles start to spread. For those familiar with celestial events, it looks a lot like there's about to be a massive coronal mass ejection...

Invisible Kid has posed:
    "Whoa boy," Invisible Kid breathes, following the readings, although he first opens a slipgate to deliver Del back to the ground since being depowered in space is not going to be healthy for him.  "Your mix was extra crispy, Brainy, expect a major CME in short order.  Thoughts on countermeasures would be appreciated, because I don't know what we're supposed to do about a gigaton of plasma."

Brainiac 5 has posed:
Brainiac 5 wrinkles his nose.

"Frell." He says. He had calculated the odds of this for this type of star and expected the results would be minimal. "...Unexpected consequence of the solar diffuser... massive solar flare." He puts his hand on his chin and thinks, in silence.

Star-Lord has posed:
"We don't have time for this." Peter informs Lar. The second the soldiers come around the shield, Peter opens fire with his machine gun, a semi-auto round being aimed right for his head, the lead instantly penetrating into the Daxamite's brain. Gamora leaps for the other soldier, and Godslayer is brought around as Gamora decapitates another instantly. Soon, she's leaping for another as she starts laying into the soldiers.

The Most Dangerous Woman In the Galaxy starts on her own rampage, largely as a distraction... but also to prove the point that the Guardians are willing to go all in here.

Peter, meanwhile, had his Jet Boots on, and looks to Lar, "it stops when they do." Peter repeats, before he flies off, taking pot shots at the soldiers himself. Soon, the two Guardians are laying waste to the Daxamite army. His helm is tapped on, and he broadcasts on an encrypted frequency, "Deren, this is Star-Lord. We just landed and are seeking your position. Give us coordinates so we can extract you." *Pew Pew Pew Pew*

Grail has posed:
A laugh comes from Grail, she's obviously enjoying herself. She notes the guard pushing her and the incoming beams and attempts to take his charge, grind backwards and turn him into hte path of the incoming heat vision. She is smiling wide with teeth gritted as she pushes out the words, "Oh, you Daxams sure do throw a fun party." She laughs, "Too bad your queen left you to die." She presses into the wall but is not put through it just yet, she instead opens up with another Omega Beam, this one attempting to go right through hte guard on her, unleashing a full unslaught of her inherited terror right into him, "Come on then! After I'm through with you I'm going to see about your queen! Don't you want to stop me?!"

Mon-El has posed:
    Del is now on the ground. Except...the red solar radiation doesn't weaken him like it does his peers. Meanwhile, the readings from that star are growing more and more worthy of concern, and alarms are going off now on the cruiser, indicating that the imminent CME is quite massive, and if the calculations are right, these shields won't hold especially not after taking that beating from Del. In fact, all of Theseus is likely to burn...they have mere minutes before it reaches them if not less.

    Meanwhile, the brawl in the now separate part of the Daxamite flagship suddenly takes a bitter turn for the Royal Guard, as they suddenly find themselves sapped of their powers, and end up torn to pieces by such a powerful being as Grail, their charred corpses and entrails littering the floor and walls. But before Grail can pursue Rhea, the Daxamite fleet suddenly takes off, the ships disappearing into hyperspace to parts unknown. Indeed, it does seem that she has left them to die. Those who had faced off against Grail, and those stuck on Theseus as well.

Mon-El has posed:
    And speaking of those on the ground.

    "No!" Lar cries out as Peter and Gamora start to slaughter the soldiers. Though, as they are unexpectedly sapped of their powers, most of them collapse to the ground, allowing the Guardians to kill them off easily. Those that manage to survive activate their own jet propulsion mechanisms to try to fly away, although now that their own fleet has abandoned them, they have nowhere to run.

    "You would kill defenseless soldiers? You're no better than they are!" he calls out accusingly. "You claim to be concerned about these natives, but all you -really- care about is your own agenda and your own payday!" His eyes blaze crimson, but he does not lash out against them.

Brainiac 5 has posed:
Brainy looks up, as energy blasts strike his force field, and he finally says, "I'm *trying to think*--"

And finally, he just bursts *through the hull* and out into space. "Mmmm. Ah, of course. It would've come to me if it wasn't so obvious."

He fframes the star with his hand, like a box. "Lyle, you'll find a canister on a shelf in the lab, behind the cryogenic container with the Olsen boy in it, the one my coat is hanging on."

"Take that canister, add it to the helium 3 mix for the ship's power supply, position the ship between the flare and the planet, then divert power for all ship's systems into shields. Project the shields outward in a five-point formation."

"I'm going to create a Wave Motion wall using the ship's shields to destabilize and diffuse the flare."

Star-Lord has posed:
Over the commlink, Deren replies. "Star-Lord! I'm in my hole just on the northern edge of town. My sensors tell me the sun is about to blast this planet to ashes, so I'd appreciate that extract! Sending coordinates now." Indeed, the HUD displays the coordinates, and automatically sets a waypoint there.

"Gamora, they're running, get back to the Milano and keep them away, I got this." Gamora backs off as requested, back to the Milano, though she keeps an eye on Lar, as if ready to strike should he.

"Lar, I don't claim to be personally invested here, but if you want to be a hypocrite and tell me Daxamite lives are more valuable than the natives here, your confirmation bias is showing." Peter snipes back at Mon-El, "pretend I only care about myself all you like, fact is your people went to war, and now you're crying someone is calling them on it." Peter continues as he reaches the building, scanning for his contact.

Invisible Kid has posed:
    "Nnnnot the brilliant idea I was going to ask you for -- did I hear you right, *between* the planet and the CME?" Lyle replies.  Of course, though they can't tell over the radio, he's already on his way to the lab to get the required equipment.  We're the Legion, it's what we do.  "I'm going to do us both a favor and not ask about why you're using a cryogenically frozen person as a coat rack... and do I get any warning what I'm putting into the fuel mix?  No, of course not."
    So as to not waste any time, he routes controls down to Engineering so he can manage things from there, and slips into a transuit, because "all ship's systems" includes life support.
    "This better work or I'm changing my mind about whether there's an afterlife just so I can haunt you!" he says... and sets Brainy's instructions into motion.

Brainiac 5 has posed:
"Lyle... what is my name?" Brainy asks, over the commlink.

Grail has posed:
And then the air is sucked out of the place, all the guys are dead and Grail is standing there looking annoyed. She looks around the place, all ripped to shreds and then shakes her head. She'd huff at someone if it were possible to huff in space and then she grins as she notes that everyone seems to fleeing the place. She casually walks out to the edge of this chunk of ship and steps outside carefully, making sure to grip the ship as she does. She stares at the sun and then looks around before shrugging.

A moment later, down on planet side near where the original disturbance was, a loud sound rips over a portion of space as the glowing circles of light of a boomtube opens up and Grail steps on to the planet's surface, "Are all the Daxamites on this planet out of nerve, too?" She asks and taps the back of her scythe to her shoulder, looking rather annoyed at the wanton destruction. She's not a terrible ways form Star-Lord and Lar even though she hasn't yet noticed them.

Invisible Kid has posed:
    "Mud, if we have to do the kind of engine overhaul I think we're going to have to!" Lyle shoots back.

Brainiac 5 has posed:
"Ahem. My name is Querl Dox."

"I am a Brainiac. Fifth in the line of my family to bear that title."

"Now if you'll quit *griping* and do exactly what I'll say you'll get a reminder of what that name means I am capable of." He floats there, in space, and then says, "Every now and again you could all use a reminder of what I'm capable of."

Mon-El has posed:
    As Lyle positions the ship in front of the CME, it's quite a sight to behold...and definitely a scary one. The burning plasma and gases are hurtling straight for it--will even the entire ship's power reserves do the trick? Finally, it slams into the front-face shields. Alarms are screaming everywhere, lights flick off as the fiery coronal mass washes over the shields, stressing them to the max! This goes on for a couple of minutes that probably seem an eternity, but after all is said done, Lyle and the cruiser are still in one piece. Well...relatively. Some stray meteors of fire are still hrutling toward the planet's surface, but they won't be enough to wipe out everything. Hopefully, this is something it can eventually recover from.

    "-All- intelligent life is equally valuable. They were -defenseless-, you DIDN'T have to kill them!" Lar throws back. "In fact, maybe if you weren't so focused on killing then maybe you could've gotten some of these natives you seem to be rooting for to safety!" Grail might have caught the tail end of that diatribe as she arrives from her boomtube. He turns toward her, annoyed. What the hell is -she- doing here? "Obviously -not-."

    Right on cue, the berserk-rage Del seems to divebomb out of the sky, headed straight for Grail with the intent of slamming her into the ground. Why does he attack her in particular? Who knows, with how far gone his mind is. Lar's eyes widen. "Grife...Del?!"

    But he is forced to get out of the way as one of those stray pieces of corona comes careening out of the sky, setting the atmosphere on fire as it does.

Brainiac 5 has posed:
"I told you it would work."

"Now I would suggest that we now turn our attention to protecting the civilian population." Brainy says, "And Daxamite invader alike. There will, unfortunately, be some damage to the planet. This is the best of a list of possible bad choices." He seems to deflect that the solar flare was his doing. Then again, given that the alternative was the native population being exterminated by Daxamite invaders, perhaps he's decided to just roll with it.

His flight-ring carries him toward the planet.

Star-Lord has posed:
At this point, Star-Lord is outright ignoring Lar as he grabs his contact from his bunker. Placed on his back, his Jet-Boots are activated again and they head for the Milano.

As he lands at the hatch back into the ship... "Until next time, Lar." Peter informs Mon-El as both Gamora and Peter walk in.

Seconds later, and the Milano is taking off, heading for the jump point back into Nova territory.

Invisible Kid has posed:
    Meanwhile, what Lyle has to say goes unrecorded as he's had the foresight to shut down his mic.  First life support is back up, so he can get out of the transuit.  Then a bewildering set of diagnostics on all affected ship's systems, and a few that really shouldn't have been affected.  Shields are... functioning.  Engines are... working, but not with much joy.  "Well, there's a stutter in the fuel feed I don't like, the shields are topping out at 74%, but we're mobile," he reports as he brings the cruiser back into its earlier orbit.  "What was in that canister?"
    There is a teeny pause just before the subtle click of his transmission ending, in which one might have just barely heard him quietly add, "...Mud?"  Or might not.  Could have been noise introduced by the strain on the ship's systems.
    Lyle, of course, will neither confirm nor deny anything.

Grail has posed:
And then Grail is looking at Mon-El and the others, "Ah, there you are." SHe points at him with her scythe, "I would have words with yo-" She pauses mid sentence and looks up, "Hold that thought, Lar." ANd she takes the hit from the incoming, raging Daxamite head on. She craters into the ground and the earth trembles as they hit. She stares up at him as he smashes her into the Earth and Grail winces a little through gritted teeth. That hurt some. She looks in his eyes and then says, "Sorry, you're not really my type. Sweet of you to throw yourself at me though." And with that she attempts to plant a foot and kick him back up the way he came.

Mon-El has posed:
    That ball of corona smashes into the ground, creating its own crater and a significant shockwave a bit off from where Grail just got divebombed. And also setting the ground on fire.

    Lar glares at Star-Lord as he leaves, feeling not only angry but also...hurt and disappointed that his friend wasn't the man he thought he was. As Peter and the Guardians leave in the Milano, they'll no doubt have to maneuver through the burning chunks of corona that are raining down everywhere, but certainly nothing an ace pilot like Quill can't handle.

    When Grail looks up into his eyes, she can definitely tell he's completely psycho, out of his mind. Like a raging beast. He also looks sort of like a slightly older version of Lar. That's all she can glean though before her foot is planted into him and sends him back up into the sky -and- right into another piece of sun that collides violently with him. It disperses, sending smaller pieces raining down in its place. Del is nowhere to be seen.

    Making his way planetside, Brainiac would be greeted by a pretty sorry sight. A halfway-completed invasion/massacre of a people who didn't even realize stars were more than just pinpricks of light in the sky, dead Daxamites everywhere (though some potentially still alive and hiding), and pieces of corona raining down and setting things on fire. It might go on for a few hours...but again hopefully the damage won't be permanent. At least with help on the recovery.

    Well, there's certainly work to be done.

Brainiac 5 has posed:
Brainy certainly noticed the Guardians of the Galaxy didn't stick around. Right now, there's a lot of work to do, such as explaining to terrified natives how to start putting out fires and institute evacuation procedures.

"Lar," he says, finally, "Remind me to talk to you about free-association with pirates."

Grail has posed:
Climbing slowly up out of the crater, Grail lets out a slow breath before looking to Lar, "Hey, Lar. Your family is terrible." She chuckles, "Not that mine is much better. All the same, you're gonna wanna make time to talk with me." She nods her head, "It's about this...Kal-El." She then looks up and her eyes glow bright before a beam of pure red shoots out, makes multiple adjustments mid air and intercepts with a ball of burning plasma that was heading their way, blasting it into much smaller chunks before she looks back down with a glare.

Mon-El has posed:
    Lar sighs at Querl. "I know, okay? But they rescued me from some crazy 'magitech' wielding criminals in some fringe system, so I kinda owe him one." he admits, shaking his head.

    Right....the natives. Welp, this wasn't going to be easy. Explaining all of this to them, that is. Grife, they'd probably blame everyone. -Especially- him. He sighs again, this time even more heavily. "Ugh, Querl you and Lyle deal with the locals this time, okay? They aren't going to trust me."

    He looks over to Grail as she states the obvious about his family and takes care of another piece of coronal mass. "Thanks, Captain Obvious. Look, if you haven't already noticed, I'm kinda busy here. So, maybe after I figured out this mess of a situation?"

Tyran'tar has posed:
    A green forcefield covers the battle field which protects people from the flame blasts of corona. Tyran'tar lands next to lar and looks to him. "You okay? I know if my people were doing this it would bother me." He says to the daxamite.

Brainiac 5 has posed:
Querl looks up, and then says, "Right."

He looks to a crowd of people. "I don't care what you think of me. Curse my name from one end of the universe to other, it doesn't matter, your choice between survival or the end of your civiization and your culture depends on your ability to *listen*. Terrible things have happened and now you need to find it in yourselves to begin picking up the pieces."

"Now, let's begin... listen very carefully, we don't have time for me to repeat myself."

Grail has posed:
A soft growl escapes Grail at Mon-El before she walks closer and then rolls her eyes, "Sure, do what you need to do." She nods her head, "I will settle with you when this is done." SHe then looks over at Brainiac 5 and hmms before shrugging and just picking a spot to lean as she waits for this to wrap up.