middleofsomewhere | Orange Team Onward!

Orange Team Onward!

Arrival

Their flight path makes sure they are well out of the way of both the battles taking place and they get to the shield station within an hour as long as they fly quickly.

There are no enemy ships around but it is clear there has been an attack, the shield disk itself is damaged and there seems to be no power in the station.

Once they dock they will be met by some technicians who quickly explain the situation.

Help is needed everywhere. The power needs repaired, the shield needs repaired from the outside, there are injured technicians who need medical care. There is a small med-bay available.

Maintenance

Once the initial crisis is dealt with it is a case of keeping up with things. A patrol is needed to guard the station from other attacks, there are four shield stations in total and so the voidtreckers may chose to split themselves once things are a little calmer.

Keeping up the shields is an almost constant job, especially with the attacks. Once one thing is fixed it seems another thing is down. The maintenance itself is very technical but there are parts that can be done by the unskilled as long as they have direction.

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Curufin came into the docking bay and immediately heard the warning PSA coming over the speakers. "Intruder alert, intruder alert!" How the hell did the Empire soldiers get on the station??? Maybe they used a transporter beam like in the science fiction movies? But Curufin didn't waste much time wondering, nor did he wait for backup. He just whipped out his blaster and started running, dodging, and firing.

It wasn't long before he saw Garrett doing the same. Between them, they managed to account for quite a few of these intruders, even before anyone else came running into the bay to help.

"How'd they get in? Did you see?" he asked, when the bodies were scattered on the floor and there was time for words.

Garrett was in the habit of checking his ammunition stocks after a long night especially whenever he ended up using more arrows than intended on a job. However, he realized belatedly that he wasn't using his bow and arrows to defend and ended up awkwardly searching for something that wasn't there.

His gaze turned sheepishly to Curufin as the other asked his question and Garrett quickly put the blaster away to forget his awkwardness. Then he shook his head.

"I was concentrating on something else when they showed up," Garrett responded honestly.

He'd been going through some scrap parts in a dark corner to be exact but that was neither here nor there. Well, it was over there out of sight. Garrett had dropped what he was doing when the attackers appeared and started to cause a distraction. In the ensuring battle he'd eventually moved out into the heat of the small battlefield to help finish off the enemy numbers more quickly once Curufin had arrived.

"But it couldn't have been somewhere far from here."

Secretly, Garrett hoped he wouldn't get roped into helping figure it out. He wanted to sweep over the fallen bodies before they were properly removed. But that wasn't something he was going to advertise, of course.

Curufin couldn't fault Garrett for looking for a weapon that wasn't there. Curufin himself was a swordsman, and it felt strange to be fighting with any other weapon -- and this was despite the fact that he had handled modern weapons in two other worlds. He holstered his own blaster.

He nodded to Garrett's explanation of why he hadn't seen the attackers arriving.

"Yes, I suppose so. Wherever they came from, they certainly surprised us. Well, they may not get away with that a second time."

He looked over the dead Empire soldiers. "Well, they left the garbage for us to shovel out. I suppose I could help with that, if I knew where to put them." He wasn't aware of Garrett's desire to pillage the bodies before they were dealt with, though he did have a feeling that Garrett was a rather secretive person. Of course, that was a feeling partly left over from the mission on the ice world, where he had spoken to Garrett on the sky platform of the mad scientist's ice-monster-activating and snow-making machine, deep in the maze up on the platform. And then Garrett had more or less disappeared.

Garrett was surprised then that Curufin didn't want to look for the enemy's entrance point. In his experience, guards tended to like to find and shore up areas where unwanted guests (such as himself) got in and stirred up trouble. Then again he didn't think Orange Team was really comprised of the types to be guards. At least not the kind he was used to.

He could work this this though. Even if Curufin stayed to help move the bodies Garrett could still go over most of them as they worked together.

"Well there's typically two places to put men like this," Garrett replied with a wry tone. "In the brig or in the morgue."

Curufin was only delaying the search for an entry point. Garrett was right, he wasn't the type to be a guard. He had spent his life fighting, not guarding prisoners -- which he and his soldiers didn't take, anyway. He wasn't sure in any case that the soldiers had gotten into the bay by any straightforward physical method.

He smiled grimly at Garrett's joke. "Indeed. But I don't think we left any of these alive, so it's the morgue for them. Or else they'll get dumped right out into space."

And then he started making the circuit of the docking space, which didn't take long. He commented as he completed the search: "There don't seem to be any unfamiliar spacecraft parked in here, so the soldiers must have been somehow beamed in. Or else they have been on the station all along and just came out of their hiding places."

"You're wrong," Garrett replied. "They're not all dead."

He said it with as hard a stare as he had. Garrett wasn't a killer by choice. Any enemy he fought in melee combat was simply knocked unconscious. He never went for the killing blow if he didn't have to.

Not to say he didn't hit a few of these guys with the blaster he'd picked up. Most of the enemy was dead just not quite all.

"...like teleporting with magic?" He didn't know much about science and he barely understood magic, but the latter was something he had seen before. Kumoko used it liberally on the train and demons and some faeries used it back in Ryslig.

Curufin turned around with a startled look. It hadn't occurred to him that Garrett would have left any of these enemies alive, since Curufin himself wouldn't have done so. In his life and experience, war was kill or be killed. He always went for the killing blow.

"Crap! Now what? We'll have to either kill them or call the healers and have them come and get the wounded."

Assuming that Garrett wouldn't want him to start killing the not-quite-dead, Curufin went to the nearest comm station and started punching buttons, trying to get the station hospital on the line.

Meantime, he responded to Garrett's speculation. "I don't know if the Empire uses magic, but they and everybody else in this universe seems to use science and technology. Maybe they know how to teleport with pure tech."

Luckily for Garrett, he had never been apart of any war. Not counting Ryslig since the monsters were never told (they found out on their own eventually) and he never participated anyway. So this was, technically, all new to him.

He hated it. War was horrible. It was everything that went against his principles. Even as a monster...

Garrett shook his head, maybe in amusement, as Curufin went for the communication station. The thief would have just dragged them to the brig, honestly. He never tended to the wounded back home, just dragged them to a dark corner where they wouldn't be spotted before he got in and out. But at least Curufin was being decent. It made Garrett feel comfortable around the elf.

The sneak thief was just kneeling down next to one of the enemy bodies when Curufin's explanation struck him. He paused to consider. "That must be some impressive technology. I can't imagine how it works."

That's why it might have been magic to him even if it was science. But if someone who knew better than him said it was possible he would believe it. There was a lot about that sort of thing he didn't know but realized that other worlds were much further along discovering than his own. So it had been in Ryslig, if on a much lesser scale.

Curufin got the hospital on the comm, explained the situation to them, got a response, and then disconnected.

"They'll be here in a few minutes. I think they weren't all that pleased to have some enemies to take care of, but they are medical people, after all. They think first of saving lives." He smiled wryly. "They'll have to have guards in the medical center to watch these guys, though."

He came over to where Garrett was kneeling, and he looked over the bodies to try to determine which were still alive. One of these fallen Empire warriors groaned and opened his eyes. Curufin went to him and spoke softly, laying a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, I've called the medics to come and get you. You're not going to be executed. Just do me a favor, don't try to be heroes of the Empire and attack the hospital personnel. It'll probably just get you killed, and all for nothing. Chill out, cooperate, and you'll most likely survive to go home via some sort of prisoner exchange." This was speculation, but at least it had a comforting sound. The wounded man did not speak but merely nodded and closed his eyes again.

And that was Curufin. He was either a cold-blooded killer or he was very merciful indeed. Generally one or the other, rarely anything in between. He'd have agreed with Garrett that war was horrible, and respected him for this belief or perception. It was only that Curufin's life had consisted of adapting to the horror of war.

He took another careful look around the docking bay, still wondering how the soldiers had gotten aboard the station. Maybe being beamed in wasn't the only possibility. Still, it was the one under discussion. "If the Empire actually has such technology, I wouldn't know how it works, either. That's a little beyond anything I've ever seen or experienced, though I heard talk of it in another world that I lived in for a while."

Garrett listened to Curufin idly as he searched the enemy soldier over for items to pilfer. He checked the person's pulse, too, for good measure but this one must have taken a blaster shot somewhere on the other side of him that was fatal because there was nothing to feel. He moved swiftly to the next soldier and did the same in quick succession, trying to make it appear that he was checking for life more than items.

Not that he would care either way but it was always easier to not explain than to be questioned.

He glanced back at Curufin as the conversation went back to talk of technology. "Sounds familiar. I only know what little I do of advanced tech from another world than my own. We barely have electricity back in The City."

Curufin apparently didn't notice that Garrett was concerned with something other than checking for life signs.

"The City is on your home world? So, what's this other world you've visited?" He was always interested in hearing from people who had sojourned in worlds other than their own, and comparing notes, since he was one of those people himself.

Edited 2020-03-23 00:02 (UTC)

Garrett nodded absently as he went back to what he was doing. "Yeah. The other world was called Ryslig. Or at least the part of it we were stuck in."

Garrett wasn't as keen to talk. It wasn't Curufin; it was just Garrett's nature to be quiet. On top of that, Ryslig was a bit of a sore subject. He would continue only if pressed. He didn't sound begrudging though, just absent since he was focused elsewhere.

"Ryslig. Funny, I think I have heard it mentioned before -- when I was in another world. My informant wasn't very specific about it." He also went back to what he was doing, checking the docking bay for any clues whatsoever that might suggest the way the enemy had gotten in. He wasn't content with his own beam-me-up-Scotty hypothesis.

As as for Garrett's reticence, Curufn would understand that, a past world being a sore subject. He had the same problem. He wouldn't press Garrett to talk about it; he'd just accept it if Garrett didn't comment further.

"How did you people get into this station?" he muttered, when he passed close to the dead or wounded Empire soldiers.

"Oh yeah?" Garrett looked up at Curufin with a hint of interest whenever the elf mentioned someone else talking about Ryslig. Did that mean it was common for people to be dragged out of one world and straight into another? Great. "Well, it's not that great a place so I don't blame him for not talking about it."

The thief turned back to his current body and pilfered the few useful things (it wasn't much but he'd get what he could take) before standing up and moving again. He glanced at Curufin at the muttered question. He considered something for a moment.

"I could look for their entrance point if it'd make you feel any better."

"Maybe he had the same experience as you did, and that's why he didn't bother to tell the whole story." Curufin had long held the belief that it was common to be snatched out of one world and into another. It had happened to him three times.

He gave the casualties another quizzical look, as though he expected them to answer his question about the means of entry. But of course, none of them was going to answer. Curufin looked back at Garrett when Garrett looked at him and made his offer.

"If you have some means of searching for that entry point, I'd say go for it."

Garrett's extra limbs twitched in something that was not quiet amusement. "Probably. Everyone there had the same fate. He would have been noticeably unique because of it." Unless the person was luckier than Garrett and hadn't remained a monster. That would be so unfair.

"I'll look," he responded. "We can always ask one of them later."

If any of the unconscious ones would even talk when questioned. Garrett wouldn't be the one to try though, he wasn't suited to it. At best he could offer to look intimidating by his monstrous appearance but he wouldn't torture a soul. That was definitely not in his personal creed.

In the next moment of silence Garrett glanced around. His right eye glowed softly as he did so, just perceptively more brighter green than usual. The first thing the thief noticed was that there was too much nonsense here where the battle was for him to distinguish much. But if he walked away and Focused where the soldiers had come from he could pick out their footprints since he was looking for them. They glowed faintly in his eyesight--some ancient energy giving him better perception than what was natural. He tried not to think about it.

"Here." He said and started to follow the footprints to where they came form.

"A strange place, then, this Ryslig."

And he glanced again at the wounded and the dead. "We could ask some of them, though I doubt they'll give information." Curufin would never torture a person either. He had his dark side, but it didn't include anything like that.

He watched Garrett with curiosity as the man's eye glowed and he began to search the floor with his arcane senses. He followed when Garrett walked in the direction of the invisible footprints, which evidently he could see. Curufin could not, although he had a few powers of his own. His did not seem useful here, and Garrett's did. "Where does the trail lead?"

"This way," the thief replied.

He would get taxed if he kept this up for too long. However, he moved swiftly and it didn't take long to find the end of the trail. His brow furrowed as he looked up, sight reverted to normal, and glanced around. It was an empty space in the hangar.

"It...stops."

Garrett looked back down at the ground and Focused. The footprints ended, or rather started, from this point. He blinked out of his bleached-world vision and looked at Curufin.

"There are no more footprints."

Curufin continued to follow the thief. (Though he didn't know the man was a thief -- he had not seemed to notice how Garrett had stealthily slipped some of the dead or wounded soldiers' belonging out of their pockets and into his -- or if Curufin did notice, he had looked the other way.)

He stood with Garrett and stared at the deck where Garrett had indicated that the trail stopped. The empty space was not close to any of the station's spacecraft, but it was not far from the edge of the landing platform, where the vast overhead door came down to meet the edge. Spacecraft would skid into the hanger when the door was retracted. Curufin frowned and stared some more.

"Strange, that the footprints start from here. It almost seems as if they came from a vanished landing craft."

That idea made sense to Garrett as soon as Curufin said it, for which the thief was quietly thankful. It hadn't occurred to him. But when he thought about it now that it was pointed out, it made sense. This was a docking area. And like a wharf it meant ships came and went constantly, and any footprints would be lost if the ship took the rest with it.

At least now Garrett was certain he wasn't missing something with his Focus. That would have been awkward.

"All right. That makes more sense than vanishing footprints or worse--teleporting enemies. So they came here on a spacecraft, disembarked, and then attacked. But why didn't anyone notice the enemy spacecraft get in here? Could they...have one of our allies' crafts?"

That was a scary thought. If they had some sort of stolen craft they could slip past the outside defenses and keep bringing in more troops to attack on the ground, so to speak. It would definitely keep them occupied instead of fixing the shield components as much as they would like.

"We'd be in real trouble if they actually had a means to teleport themselves in here. If they've got some means to conceal a ship in order to land it unseen, that's a little bit less of a problem. All we have to do is arrange for guards to be in this hanger at all times, and sound the alarm. But if they were able to get a ship in close enough to land, then as you say, why didn't the station crew notice them before they got close enough to land? Surely the station's sensing devices should have been able to detect an Empire fighter or transport ship. And didn't our allies have ships patrolling this part of space? Those should have noticed, too."

Curufin was scratching his head in perplexity. "Makes no sense, unless you're right again, and the Empire soldiers were able to steal a ship belonging to our allies. If that happened, I hope they only stole one ship." But even one would be a problem for the Void Warriors and their allies.

"Is there a way to conceal a ship from...all this?" Garrett hadn't considered that option simply because it boggled the mind to think it possible to hide something so large. But maybe he should have considered magic? A way to make it invisible? And even some tech seemed magical to him so maybe it didn't require actual magic to pull off here. Damn.

"I don't think I like the sound of either option to be honest. I guess we'll have to keep a bigger eye out for ground attacks."

"I wonder if there is?" said Curufn. "There are so many technological marvels that almost don't seem real. . . such as artificial wormholes. Might there be a means to make a ship invisible? That would certainly explain the evidence you just discovered."

He didn't like the sound of either idea, either. Stolen ships or invisible ships.

"Yes, we'll have to keep a sharper eye on this hanger. Can't have this happening again."

Garrett shook his head back and forth in a slow manner. "That's the truth. I barely understand how they tamed electricity much less all the newer technology. This place is way beyond my own world or even the one I was trapped in before the train."

He sighed but stood up straight. "Yeah, you're right. We should tell the soldiers to," he waved a hand about, "do their guarding thing in here. I'll let them know what happened."

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Orange Team Onward!

III. Attacked

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Good place to wrap?

Sounds good to me.