11346/They Came From Beyond Space!

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They Came From Beyond Space!
Date of Scene: 27 May 2022
Location: Earth Orbit
Synopsis: Space sharks come for the ISS. The ISS doesn't get eaten.
Cast of Characters: Jane Foster, Tony Stark, Stephanie Brown, Daisy Johnson, Kate Kane, Vintridr




Jane Foster has posed:
Thursday afternoon...
The word went out among the Department of Defense and astronomy officials about the ludicrous situation being true. Small objects moving at speed through Earth orbit were no space debris... But shark-shaped beings that immediately got dubbed "space sharks."

Space shark news rarely stays private. The leaks over social media get plenty of attention, though the real details can be acquired by SHIELD, people like Oracle, or anyone with a front-row seat on the Moon. The space sharks aren't ignoring Earth, but rather seem to be headed for it.

Thus a hastily assembled task force complete with an assist from Reed Richards in the form of equipment assembles at Wallops Flight Facility -- the Mid-Atlantic Space Port -- at DelMarVa.

Basically, anyone who /can/ come to help deal with a space shark is invited. However they manage to get the invitation, it's passed on hastily through back channels or straight up on NextDoor by a worried ISS astronaut's wife. The leaks may be uncomfortable but they help with organizing heroes, former astronauts, or other personnel who can deal with a big toothy monster.

Friday morning...
The assembled task force is a motley lot, all in all, but no one quite has the capacity to launch a space-going ship in under six hours. Two rockets and several smaller launch vehicles are hastily assembled on pads. Gear is sorted by size and attended by personnel in white garb, each would-be spacefarer getting swarmed over unless they have no need for it. Space suits contain breathing apparatuses, propulsion systems, and really cool shiny helmets because some kooky scientists and engineers care about that. Some are prototypes, some are Bashkit Ted, and some are actually made by Reed Richards so they work.

The mission debrief essentially boils down to: "Kill shark." The sharks in question number three, and they're all larger than blue whales. Pictures from space and satellites are included and they are, in fact, giant great-white like things with huge, open maws full of huge pointy teeth.

Tony Stark has posed:
To be perfectly fair, there is a hand full of people who can launch a ship into space in under six hours. Richards could probably do it, that guy has all the space stuff, Batman could probably do it because he's Batman and he does whatever he wants, and Tony Stark could do it. Has done it actually. Several times. Space is where he goes to file his taxes, they say, because there's no intergalactic law on tarifs and trade agreements.

More seriously, Thursday when the news broke, he was in his lab prepping to launch a few satellites into orbit for a weather project he's been working on. Which is just coincidence, but based in facts. Logs can be provided!

"Sir, have you seen the news of the Space Sharks?" Jarvis asks helpfully.

"Yep."

"And do you plan to do anything to help?"

"Like send a ham? Pack some sandwiches? What are you asking... you know I don't do sharks."

"Sir..."

"Ask Pepper. She said I was grounded."

"She said you're no longer allowed to use her as an excuse not to do things you don't want to do."

"I wish I hadn't given her override on your core matrix... Alright, fine. Contact whoever is heading this psychotic thing and tell them I'll be there.. Reconfigure the launch sequence I've been working on for at least one, but up to four, single person vessels.. and get a couple of suits ready." While fishing out his cellphone to dial up a contact in the DOJ and/or SHIELD. "Heeeeey, It's Tony... Stark. Yeah, I heard you had a fishy problem? Where do I need to meet up to punch a shark..." Hand over the receiver, "I don't like this, make sure Pepper knows I don't like it. So when I get eaten by a shark and die, she feels terrible."

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Batgirl was visiting the Justice League headquarters in Metropolis when word reached about the impending giant space sharks from space.

To be fair her first reaction was, "Oh my god, how cool is that!?" Thankfully no one but a few staff were around to hear it.

She ended up out at the launch platform after as fast a trip as was available to her. A drone flew up a space-capable version of her Batgirl suit.

Ok, an EXPERIMENTAL space-capable version of her Batgirl suit. Which only slightly dimmed her enthusiasm as she arrived and moved to join the other heroes mustering. "I just want to suggest that whatever movie references we're going to use, we all get on board the same genre. Star Wars, Star Trek, Starship Troopers. All good, but let's have some consistency out there, am I right?" she asks.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
Sharks. Why did it have to be sharks?

"Of all the things that can come out from space..." Daisy is still in disbelief about the mission when it reaches her hands. Is this a prank? Did Director Fury heard she named her cat after him and is now getting payback? But no, the codes check out and what's this? A file attached? Need-to-know only? Info on actual space sharks existing from what sparse info SHIELD has on them. Some larger than a football field ... Oh this is getting better by the minute.

But when the time comes for it? Daisy is there, fitting into a space suit and getting a pair of gloves on. She has been in space a few times now but it's always a thrill when it's time to go again....

... as long as it doesn't turn into an actual thriller like Jaws and they all die. But what are the odds of that?! Never tell me the odds someone wise once said ... She sighs and sends out a message to Matt.

<< I will be late for dinner. Shark problems. >>

She slides her helmet on and is getting ready to go when she gets note of that message from Tony. Well, that's good. <<This is Agent Johnson, Mr. Stark. If you want a lift come to hangar 3 out of the Triskelion. Or ..., meet up near Justice League headquarters. We are joining with some volunteers from there.>>

Kate Kane has posed:
It's been said that Kate Kane never sleeps, but that's untrue. She actually does sleep, while jogging.

And yet her phone chirping at her mid-jog with a very specific tone on an uneventful Thursday? That's new. It's not that she /ignores/ her Justice League Reserve messages, it's just that usually she dismisses them in a very 'Not my circus, not my monkeys' way. Dealing with Gotham's crime is pretty time-consuming after all.

And so, Kate prepares in that classic, billionaire Bat vigilante way.

She calls up a few defense industry contacts to find out what they've got that can be hastily painted black and slapped with an angular red Bat symbol. Fortunately, those eggheads adore their carbon fiber materials, and so Kate's fiddling with something that's actually none too different than her usual 'business attire'. A little more angular, with bulkier armor plating and an airtight undersuit. If the lack of bat-ear shaped protrusions on the helmet are bothering her, she's hiding it pretty well. Or maybe it's the fact that the upper faceplate is set to an opaque darkness from her nose up... what? She's not wearing the cowl /under/ the helmet.

And so as Kate finds herself milling about with this motley crew of shark hunters on an otherwise normal Friday for Batwoman, she's only mildly concerned. The suit seems to be working, or at least none of the alerts that have popped up in her crash course with the heads up display have been blinking an ominous red. In retrospect, volunteering for this because 'Hahaha, wait, space /whats/?!' was probably not the most responsible idea.

But when has Kate ever been irresponsible?

Besides, Batgirl's here! And she's /also/ in an experimental space suit! This is fine!

At least until the blonde's mentioning movie references and she heaves out a sigh. "Well, I didn't want to /say/ we're going to need a bigger boat, but..."

Kate whistles nonchalantly and goes right back to checking over pouches and gear thoroughly... always good to know what you've got when going up against ravenous space sharks.

That's the first thing they taught her at West Point.

Vintridr has posed:
    Vintridr arrived early, and her suit fitting is being delayed somewhat because of an increasingly patient conversation with astrophysicists and scientists.

    "They are called Hakarl -- yes, like that Icelandic dish. No, I could not say if there's a connection beyond the root word -- or, more poetically, the Sharks of Nastrond. No, they are primarily scavengers, although not unintelligent, but their hunger is beyond legendary and they tend to frenzy in much the same way as the sharks in Midgard's oceans. Only on a much larger scale."

    "... According to legend, they eat the dead. Not anything specific; dead anything. Dead mortals, dead worlds, dead deities... Anything that used to live, but lives no longer. And if they're hungry enough they're not shy about expediting the process..."

    "I say 'legend' because they hadn't been seen since aeons before my birth. Perhaps Thor himself might have personal experience with one, but even that I doubt..."

    "... Unfortunately, the Odinson is occupied by matters concerning Asgardian security and sends his regrets..."

    Eventually explanations are done, and the fitting proceeds, and Vin is left to gingerly test the limits of her suit's capabilities while she heads to the assembly area.

    Daisy gets a nod of recognition, then she looks around at the others for whoever is going to be in charge of this motley crew...

Jane Foster has posed:
On Earth, the day promises to be beautiful. The barrier islands break the Atlantic up into rolling waves, surf crashing off the breakwater. Sunshine streams through the few clouds, and the breeze is steady enough not to be a problem for anyone relying on lighter craft to get airborne.

<<Comms check,>> calls the business-like operator managing the sync-up of many different groups. Tech of various different kinds requires some jury-rigging and probably a bill sent to Tony Stark for catering. <<Once you're aboard, last checks and countdown to launch begins.>>

A large projected sign flashes from multiple corners offering a countdown. Houston's approval on this one is sort of an unnecessary matter, since the groups involved include Bats and Iron-Men and SHIELD. Divine durability also helps in some cases.

"We've got the cryo cannon ready for integration on pad 3!" cries a very, very enthusiastic engineer. "We're pretty sure a blast at -250 degrees will totally stop one of those things. If anyone wants to try the hand-cannon that the Japanese sent over, they put two in this box and we're /pretty/ sure they're stable in zero g..."

<<Targets are one hundred and forty kilometers out from ISS intercept.>> That would be Jane Foster. When she's not busy /glaring/ at someone in the control tower, squished into a corner. "Parsons, stop trying to take my microphone and trust I know exactly what I'm doing here. Which is to say none of us is regularly chasing down cosmic sharks. Don't you have the ISS engineering staff to check in with?"

<<Mr. Stark.>> There's the head of ops. <<We're ready when you are.>> His tech, his big 'launch button' to push. As soon as everyone else is in their craft and ready to go, though. No pushing the button with empty ships and their pilots stuck on the ground, looking in vague horror.

Tony Stark has posed:
<<"Okay Agent Johnson, if this is going to work, we've got to establish some ground rules. Rule 1. I'm not Mr. Stark... I know it's my birthday tomorrow, shameless plug, everyone who survives being eaten by sharks is invited, but I'm still young in spirit. Rule 2... I don't really have a second rule, but this is all last minute. I'm kind of iffy on this whole shark infested space stuff, though. So I reserve the right to make at least four oceanic jokes.">> A little while after and his four suits are loaded up. Three spares, just in case anyone isn't as prepared as him.

We WERE looking at you Matt.

Tony points at Stephanie, looking over at the blonde from behind a twenty thousand dollar pair of designer sunglasses, "If we're going to go dumpster diving for popculture references, we have to really get into the role.. Starship Troopers dealt with bugs-" He nods towards the images of sharks, "-Which those are not. They're 450 million year old aquatic dinosaurs. A hold out from an era of earth that, quite frankly, was probably really boring..." Hands up, palms out, very disdainful and unhappy about this whole sharks in space situation, "So in the interest of consistency, we have to go with Star Trek."

He's wearing a body suit that is designed to integrate with the very suit he's loading into now. The sliding plates snap into place and the slim armor begins coming online after the helmt clicks closed over his face. "Alright, Jarvis, let's pretend like we've done this before huh?" The fists clinch, the pistons and gyros piston and gyro. "Board reads green."

<<"You know they had an entire episode of Star Trek dedicated to proving Octopi were originally an alien race planted on Earth over a three hundred million years ago? And biologically they are the only creatures on earth that share no base combination DNA sequences with any other creature on earth? These are facts people. Ocean life is bullshit.">>

Enter Vintridr to share all that information, <<"Coolcool coolcoolcoolcool, no doubt no doubt.">> Iron Man prepares to rocket off and save a bunch of dead stuff, apparently, <<"let's go punch sharks, I'm crazy excited about it.">> After final checks, last minutes quips, and religious arguments with deities for the safe return of their heroes from random strangers wishing them GOD SPEED, the rockets begin to fire! The Space fishermen are breaking atmosphere and headed towards orbit to defend earth against sharks.

"Mood music, Jarvis?"

~ UNDAH DA SEE.... Undah da see...

"That's two. I have at least two more."

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Stephanie Brown gets strapped into her seat. "I can agree on Star Trek," she replies to Tony. "Long as this doesn't end with a Jurassic Park banner, When Dinosaur Sharks Ruled The Earth, falling down on everyone."

She goes through her checklist, and takes a few more moments to familiarize herself with the systems built into the Batgirl space suit. Making sure she doesn't unintentionally depressurize it. Pulls a few gadgets to get used to how they are secured to her utility belt so they reel back in if let go.

<< Alright. Batgirl is... um... go for launch? >> she says, not quite sure the right lingo and winging it. She sends off a quick message to Dick via her own comms. "Going to space. How about Italian tonight? Think I left the laundry in the dryer, can you fold it?" She wishes she could see his face when he reads it. But then he's probably been to space a few times.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"So has this mission turned into make sure Tony gets to his birthday party tomorrow alive? I mean, I can live with that." And Daisy certainly hopes she *will* live with that. Along with all of them.

Wait, Star Trek? "I am not sure I agree with Star Trek..." There, secret spilled! She isn't a trekkie! Shame on your nerdness, Daisy Johnson. Someone ring a bell or something.

"And it's not like we can't adapt. Like ... A good shark is a dead shark?" A bit on the nose maybe. But hey, she knows starship troopers at least! She buckles up on her seat and takes in a breath.

<<Quake ready and prepared for launch>> She says on comms before looking at Vin. She offers the valkyrie a nod of greeting, "Good to have you with us. And you said they hunt and eat the dead? What would they be doing coming to earth now...?" that makes her frown a touch, thoughtful, but that's not a mystery she believes she can solve now so she focuses on actually making sure they survive!

Because apparently birthday cake will be free tomorrow.

Kate Kane has posed:
Kate is not above taking one of these experimental handheld cryo cannons... mainly because she left most of her non-Bat-approved arsenal back in Gotham. She suffers through being buckled into her own seat with a loud sigh, "So... do we have to tip for taking the space taxi? I left my wallet in my other batsuit."

She gingerly works at her new chilly toy's controls, a little more serious... sure, sardonic humor is basically called for when flying into space to fight sharks... but she'd also like to make sure she doesn't hit the wrong button and turn herself into an ice cube orbiting the Earth.

Securely buckled in, Kate opens a communication link back to her own computer system to send an email in to work that she's taking a long weekend. If this goes well, she's going to deserve it.

And if it doesn't go well, well... Kane Capital's going to have a sudden employment opening anyhow. She fires off another message to one of those defense industry contacts. Just a quick 'Hey, if I die in your suit, no hard feelings'.

Vintridr has posed:
    "A good question, child of John," Vin replies to Daisy's question. "It may be related to the aftermath of recent events --" it wasn't that long ago since a cabal of Death gods tried to alter fate, after all " -- or it might simply be an extremely long migration pattern; the Galaxy is wide enough.

    At Mission Control's call she checks her seat bindings one last time before leaning back. << Vintridr, good to go, >> she radios back before turning to regard Daisy again. "At the moment, however, the question of whence and why they came is less important than how to make them leave without devouring the world."

Jane Foster has posed:
Take-off is, it must be said, a slow process. A lot of energy rumbling under one's seat means a duration of about four to six minutes to reach the Karman Line where the Earth's atmosphere ceases to officially be, and space begins. Low Earth Orbit is one thing. The rumble seat experience in any video game has nothing on being hurled like a d'art for the dark heavens after ignition, and the countdown clock swings into action. It's far less fancy an affair than the rocket launches involving satellites and fancy telescopes hanging out at the L2 point.

<<Godspeed and good luck.>> That would be Jane, along with mission control getting their similar words in edgewise. Details plunked into various computers relay through Tony's handiwork and spring up, giving a relative positioning against the limb of the Earth, the ISS a relatively fixed dot. The big dots over that way are probably sharks, and they form a ragged inverted V like geese headed south to terrorize parking lots, golf courses, and shopping plazas in the name of Canada.

The world below gets smaller, increasingly dominated by the blue curve of the Atlantic. Then, further, higher, ever more through skies that leave behind the deck of cirrus clouds and loses more light and colour the further one gets. Reaching a point when the stars peek through the thinning haze tends to be a rapturous experience for many travellers, at least the first few times. Someone seems fit to liven things up by playing a snatch of a Disney tune.

"I can show you the world,
Shining, shimmering, splendid,
Now tell me, space shark, when did you
Last let your heart decide?"

Frenzy to monotony. Waiting to action. It's all a case of figuring out how to pilot those craft as Earth's gravity weakens. Getting out takes so long and not long at all, until they are caught in orbit. The wild shell of sparking auroral light or occasional gossamer plasma plumes across spacecraft is purely a lovely, eldritch effect.

As for the sharks? Well, looking for a 150-meter long monster in space isn't exactly easy. They are big, but nothing compared to Earth-levels of big. Sensors scanning for infrared, ultraviolet, heat, or "great big silver-blue thing with glowing red eyes and a ripple effect in space" will no doubt find the spacefarer coming close. And they /could/ have a great big S on their chests, if someone wants to go under and look. Unlike Superman, they're coming for dinner. Nom nom nom.

Tony Stark has posed:
The launch is a success, but Tony doesn't seem all that surprised. The quartet of single occupant ships lance out along side the one containing the heroes and form up on a tracing beacon in the Iron Man armor, <"You heard the well of optomism, let's stop the dead eating scavanger dinosaurs from devouring earth."> Eventually, someone is going to have to explain to him why every single species in the galaxy has such a hate-on for them here on the third rock from the sun, but there's more pressing matters to attend to.

Once they're in lower orbit, Tony hits a switch and launches himself, in his suit, out into the blackness of space and fires off repulsor rockets built into the arms and legs of the red-gold painted suit clearing atmosphere into the black of space. The four vessels he'd brought with him form up in a circle around him. <<"Okay. This is the Red Zone.">> He indicates, flicking his right hand out so two of the ships adjust their flight pattern and start a long series of adjustments. Parts sliding out, clicking noiselessly in the vacuum of space to form a lattice of grey wiring with circular points on the external armature that point at the four points on its pair.

With an adjustment on his onboard computer, the devices come to life. Arcs of electricity latch the two devices together and create a huge wall of a defensive grid. "Jarvis, could you find me the signatures so I can move these things into place."

It's not easy, even for a high advanced super AI, to locate a bunch of shark sized objects in the infinite void of space so that an incredibly brilliant technological genius can aim a giant god damned laser cannon at them. <<"These things aren't designed to fire more than a few dozen times and they have to be pretty close to get a target lock.. I don't know how much about physics you know, but if you fire a laser into space and miss your target.. it's basically just going to keep going until it hits something else.. which could start some integalactic war with an alien warlord when I accidentally blow up his daughters ship during her quinceanera on Quardoshian Prime VI. So let's keep it tight, punch some sharks.. and by the heavens, don't let me die.">>

<<"Seriously, nobody wants to be the one to explain this Pepper...">>

Stephanie Brown has posed:
The launch is exciting, and scary. Those things often go together. << So Mr. Stark. Sorry, Tony. After this is all done we really need to talk to you about how you keep New York clear of penguin-themed villains. And if you think this is nervous chatter on my part, it totally is. >>

She's peering about though excitedly even as the launch bounces her about as much as it can where she's strapped into her seat. << Maybe we should have included Armageddon in the movie list. That thing about flying in a contraption with a hundred thousand pounds of fuel and a million parts built by the lowest bidder, is coming to mind! >>

That said, once they are into space she's one of the first to undo her seat harness and get a feel for zero-G. "Batwoman, we need to add this into the training routine," she says with a grin. Which, given the Justice League's Moon base is entirely feasible.

She double checks her equipment, and slings one of those nice-looking blaster cannons over her back. A salute is given to Daisy and Vintridr. << Alright, let's do this! >> she says. She goes to the air lock and then floats out into space. A few moments are spent looking at the Earth, but not too long before she turns back as the sharks are located. Tony's comment draws another response. << The Red Zone is for loading and unloading of Earth-destined passengers. There is no Space Shark parking in the Red Zone. >> She begins zooming what would be up 'above' the space sharks, given their heading, keeping from grouping up with the other heroes like a school of space fish. If that's a thing.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"I am not the daughter of-- " But then Daisy realizes she just got the Phil Coulson treatment. It's enough to get her to facepalm. If only she wasn't wearing an helmet. And it's take-off time now! So instead she hangs on to her seat while her brain tries it's best to eject through the back of her head with all the propulsion being felt. But then they finally get to space (alive!) and get to see the sharks...

"I am going into one of those cool ships..." She *haS* been training with the best pilots SHIELD has to offer after all. Time to put that skill to test. Besides, her powers are mostly useless in space. "I will provide cover.." she hopes those ships are nimble!

And then off she goes to get into one of the small one-person ships. She would call it her X-Wing but this is apparently Star Trek jokes time. But she can't call it her Enterprise! Grumble...

A few moments later and a small ship zips out of the hangar, starting to approach the sharks but keeping close to the rest of the team, getting a feel of the controls.

Kate Kane has posed:
Kate's braced, ready to endure hell on the way up into space... and it's really only as bad as she worried it would be. But once the engines are roaring and she's pretty sure fillings she hasn't even got are rattling in her head, it's too late to ask to get off the ride. And so she focuses on one hopeful thought.

Being shaken apart by a rocket launch is the _easy_ part. There's still actual no-fooling goddamned space sharks waiting up there.

See? Space launch doesn't seem so bad now!

It's only once the Disney tune starts filtering in over the comms that Kate realizes she definitely forgot the absolutely most important thing to bring. The saviour of all space travels gone wrong. An inanimate carbon rod.

As the rumbling fades to the stillness of true, actual space Kate's eyes dart up to the life support readout in her HUD... full atmosphere pressure, standard temperature... so why did she just feel an intense chill? When the ship opens and she's unbuckling to float weightlessly, it all clicks together. Right, right. The enormity of space travel. The insignificance of a single person amongst the stars.

It's awe-inspiring. It's an epiphany.

It can wait, because giant space sharks want to eat the Earth.

She cracks a grin, and rolls her eyes, "Oh, I think we need a set of individual ships that combine together into... a giant Batman? Just one bigger ship that still kind of looks like a bat? But yes, everyone gets zero G training for sure."

She doublechecks the Cryo Blaster isn't going to get in the way of anything else, and stands up, magnetic soles on her boots keeping her secured to the ship's eck for the moment while she runs through one final /final/ system check... all thrusters reading green.

Sure, maybe the diagnostic system is broken, but Kate's really hoping if that's the case it'll be something someone else finds out in the post-tragedy data readout and she'll be blissfully unaware.

With everything checked and doublechecked Kate hurls herself into the void, thrusters kicking to life, and sending her bobbing in a slow spiral and a few other maneuvers, just to make sure she's got a handle.

And then, with things checking out, she's hitting full throttle... not /above/ the sharks like Steph. Oh no, she's heading directly towards one. Hey, space is big, she'll have time to figure out step two of the plan before they meet up.

Because 'Hook a space shark' is less of a plan and more of a goal.

Vintridr has posed:
    Vintridr can't quite suppress a smile, for all that no one can see it underneath that helmet. Such tiny, fragile things mortals are - and yet here they are, hurtling themselves into the unknown against foes that even the legions of Asgard once feared. Far be it from her not to lend her strength to their efforts.

    She crouches at the edge of the hangar, carefully tracking the others' movements, chooses her moment, and leaps, pushing off the deck with all the force an Asgardian can bring to bear, sending herself hurtling out into space in an intercept trajectory to Daisy's craft, using her suit's thrusters to brake and match velocities until her magnetic boots lock against the hull just aft of the cockpit, where she crouches down as her spear materializes in her right hand.

    << Let us ride, then; battle awaits! >>

Jane Foster has posed:
A person among the stars is such a small, fragile shape. Satellites tossed into orbit are simply long-winged boxes whirling around and around at breakneck speeds. The largest structures they have, the ISS and the Justice League port, are incomprehensibly tiny before the juggernauts of celestial bodies. Or shark bodies.

The largest of them in the V is... big. Big is the right word. The smaller ones in the front are still gargantuan, half again as large as the biggest blue whale, and that doesn't explain how full their bodies are. It doesn't help these great whites of the heavens have absolutely cracking, huge maws. Teeth rim them, and they have metal bits reinforcing their jaws, their gills, and armouring their great noses like some kind of horrible battering ram. Those stains on the metal aren't accidental or encountered for entering atmospheres, like a heat shield. They're absolutely dressed up to make something bleed.

Like another guy from space with occasionally red eyes, theirs /are/ red. Theirs probably blow heat beams out too, when they feel like it.

The biggest of the sharks veers off to go harass some satellites quite a ways on. Something that big shouldn't move that fast against the planet's rotation, but it does. Meanwhile...

<<Houston, this is space bird. We're evacuating to the secure compartment. Barron, Maurer, Marshburn, and Dubrov are already inside. You might want to hurry up with the plans, you know? Hei, over.>> The worried voice of the astronaut rings through their comms systems as the fragile, ramshackle assembly up there falls under shadows of the wild creatures with their tails swishing and flashing. They're in a rush.

And to Vintridr, there can be no doubt: these /are/ hakarl as the tales speak of them. The speed alone would be sufficient to tell, as well as the wicked, thrashing paths that bring them descending eagerly after the spindly machine. Kate has to maneuver and get a bit into the red zone herself on the maximum propulsion speed to follow after the threshing upright tail of the side, but hey, it's like trying to smash into a very long, very hungry train car. Eventually she can hit something, though it might take firing a line or figuring out the speed she's moving at.

Battle awaits, and to be sure, anything that wants to fire or stab or smack a shark hard enough to get its attention will get that focus. It will spin with surprising force, and it's already chomping with those huge teeth, smashing with that big reinforced nose.

Tony Stark has posed:
<<"I'll create an entire powerpoint for you, but the long story short, we don't put crystal meth in our water supply.">> That's Tony's full and total belief on why Gotham is so messed up. While everyone is off punching sharks, the billionaire with the billion dollar power armor is putting together a giant laser beam. Not because he's afraid of sharks either, nobody should think that okay, it's not true and it's just slander. "I've located several individual signatures flying in a V formation, sir."

Tony uploads that targetting data to his weapons and to the shared systems for the other heroes out in space. <<"Ahhh good choice, Agent Johnson. I call those the Jem'Hadar Gekha.">> Proper nerd-dom, he's speaking Rihanh'ri (Romulan). Out nerd that,

I'll wait.

With the Red Zone defense grid coming online, Tony checks his personal weapon loadout. He'd been very specific, cluster missiles with detonator timers so he didn't have to be overly concerned with missing and an energy blade. It might seem simple, but seriously? Who has a whole space shark counter-plan? Is that a thing anyone really thought they had to worry about?

<<"Oh yeah, let's hope Batman shows up.. No, don't worry about it Iron Man, we know you just casually built a defense grid in space with minimal prep-time. Huh? It fires particle beams? Oh, you built /actual/ x-wings? Yeah, we definitely need Batman to come karate chop stuff... He'll save the day...">>

The bigger one veers off and the armor tracks it, "Yeah, that's probably not good. JARVIS, keep a bead on that huh? If it gets any closer, I want to put a hole in it big enough to fly through... I'm not GOING to, but.. if I wanted to... I could. Which i don't." Tony is, despite earlier statements to the contrary, pretty scared of sharks.

Aquatic of space variant doesn't seem to matter.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Batgirl takes a few moments testing out the thrust of her suit. "Going to have to rely on it for any evasive manuevers," she reminds herself quietly as Stephanie moves as she might to dodge a normal blow on Earth, and all it does cause her to spin a little bit without actually moving her anywhere.

<< Right. I'll go try to corral the big one going off by himself. Henceforth, 'Target 1'. Or 'Vernon' for short. >> She rotates with thrusters and then ignites her suit's jets to being closing on Vernon. "Holy hell that thing is big," she says to herself.

"Ok, it has to have some means of propulsion, so let's try to slow it," she says aloud to herself in her suit. As her suit finally matches Vernon's speed and starts to close, she pulls out her pair of bat bolos and then attaches a line between them. Batgirl whirls them quickly, which causes her unexpectedly to start to rotate, herself.

Though the programming that Oracle put into the suit quickly adjusts, little jets firing to stabilize her position. Batgirl judges the shark's speed and then throws the bolo's towards it's tail fins, hoping to snare it with one and have the other loop that trailing line around it as gravity does its thing.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
There's little that can describe the feeling of being out in space, piloting a spacecraft. Fending off against giant beings keen on attacking earth. Or ..., something there. If Daisy was told this was going to be her job when she was growing up? She would had laughed and continued nerding off at her computer.. But now here she is...

She is just about to speed up when she feels those boots landing atop her space ship. A rider? "Somehow I feel I have just been turned into a glorified pegasus for you, Vintridr." Hey, it's a noble job! Mr. Horse would agree, maybe.

But glorified pegasus or not it's time to engage! And that's what she does with her ..., Jem'Hadar Gekha? <<I bow down to your nerddom, Tony.>> it's true, also unfair that she isn't a Trekkie! <<And you can call me Daisy, maybe?>> ... <<And can I call mine Red One?>> See? Star Wars.

She's speeding up through space now and starts bringing her ship closer to the one that isn't Vernon. The two batgals seem to have Vernon handled! So it's the other that's intercepted. Shall we call it Bob? <<Moving in on target 2. Errr.., Bob?>> she shoots a few shots at the second target to call it's attention, followed by some flips and flops to evade being thrashed by it but soon enough she is flying close enough to the thing that metal almost touches the shark.

<<That's your chance, Vintridr!>> she calls to the riding valkyrie atop her ship!

Kate Kane has posed:
Kate is rapidly learning a very important lesson as she skims through space at speeds she'd rather not think about but can't escape as the onboard computer in her suit keeps estimating it with laser range finding... and that very important lesson is 'Space sharks are very very big'. On the plus side, it means she can get a tactical assessment of them from far off. On the minus side, that tactical assessment is 'Whoashit, that shark is big, and seemingly mostly teeth and... armored?' <<Hey... is anyone else seeing... metal on these things? I'm beginning to think these space sharks didn't wander our way accidentally."

Truly, it is a testament to how over the unusual you get living in Gotham that Kate's already at the point of being able to deadpan that last remark.

Of course, it doesn't make the idea of taking on this massive interstellar blender any more palatable.

It doesn't help that Tony Stark is babbling incomprehensible nerdery in her ear.

Fortunately, Kate's used to chatting with Barbara Gordon, who /also/ speaks in fluent, incomprehensible nerdery. So while she's not fluent, she can adapt.

<<Just remember, Steph! If it looks like it's going to eat the Moon there is no shame in calling in... everyone? Probably everyone.>

But Kate's got her own little problem to deal with... well, relatively little. It's still a real big shark. A real big shark that needs a name... Aaron? Sure, she can roll with Aaron. Aaron is a perfectly functional name for a shark.

Kate barrels towards Aaron before he can get _too_ curious about the ISS and all those delicious astronauts inside, bringing up that cryo gun and aiming it... only to fire off the first shot and have it go high and to the right... well... it's probably not going to hit anything important! "Okaaaay... targeting sensors aren't /great/. Definitely remember to bring that up..."

Luckily, Kate's pretty decent at adjusting aim, and so her next blast hits Aaron right behind the jaw to get his attention, before she's letting the Cryo Blaster hang off its sling and get pulled along with her, reaching to her utility belt for two grapple guns. This is a good plan Kate.

You came up with this plan while sober, so if it's terrible, that means you're some sort of insane daredevil. And would an insane daredevil be flying a prototype space suit against bloodthirsty giant space sharks?

She'll answer that /after/ getting perilously close to that gaping set of jaws and firing two grapple lines off to the corners of that mouth before her thrusters send her flying up and over the top of the shark's head.

Okay... now to figure out how to steer a shark. How hard can it be? She's pretty sure Aquaman /and/ Namor do it all the time.

Vintridr has posed:
    << ... It's found something, >> Vin comments, eyes focusing on the largest of the Sharks. << A body. Long dead, by violence... A godling. I can't tell her nature any better from this far away. >>

    Her eyes harden. << Regardless; she deserves better than to be gobbled up by a corpse-worrier -- and you might be able to use her body to lure them away from anything else you don't want eaten. >>

    First, though, she'll have to deal with the shark at hand as Daisy brings her up to level with Bob...

    She studies the creature with care, then nods to herself as a plan of action comes to mind. << When I leap, break away and get out of range of its thrashing, then loop back to pick me up once I'm out of reach as well, >> she instructs Daisy, then crouches with spear in hand, carefully biding her time, gauging distance and movement and rotation until she leaps hard enough to shudder the ship, bringing her spear around and aiming to bury it deep into the creature's largest eyeball on this side.

    A lethal blow? Probably not, but if these are of the nature of sharks, its agonized thrashing might distract the others...

Jane Foster has posed:
Vernon has business to attend to! Important business that involves biting things with unquestionable prejudice as soon as he gets anywhere near something that he can eat. Batman-esque chopping or appearances to tell him not to harass mankind from orbit will be lost on the behemoth with the big white belly coasting along. Nom. Nom. He doesn't fly into the ISS but around it, diverted ahead, and pulling anyone unfortunate enough to be attached to him with some means of non-engine related propulsion.

How starsharks fly is a mystery. Why they fly doesn't matter. This one wants to get a tropical vacation by flouting gravity and gnashing around when its tail happens to be caught by an intrepid Batgirl.

Kate has the worry of Aaron, who is by far the most agile of the space sharks. He pivots when the first blast comes from Daisy's ship on Bob. Oh, there are teeth. Fabulous teeth to be shown, and the chomping at one of the solar panels ceases abruptly as he sweeps around. The cryo blast turns into a stream of white-blue energy. The second smashes into him and the shark surges forward blindly in pain, great red eyes starting to glow. The fiery eyebeams going off into the void, narrowly avoiding her. Of course, it's limited to its own physiology. It can't buck off what rides atop it, basically. It bucks and flails around in confusion. Maybe anger; lots of anger.

Bob is meanwhile panicking from the shots at him, and he turns on the axis to go chase after whatever shot him. Not that he really understands the concept of 'space ship attacked me' brilliantly. But he absolutely does understand hurt, and the source of the hurt. Gnashing teeth and flashing fins follow, silver-bright as he surges after her. Right as Vin stabs him in the eye with a spear. Ow. Red is red, blood is starry-blue black.

Tony Stark has posed:
<<"Thank god, Daisy. I was starting to wonder how I was going to dramatically scream 'Agent Johnson' when the action ramps up... Nooo.. Agent Johnson...">> Iron Man clinches his fists, down at his sides, <<"Actually, it still plays...">> He can avoid getting directly involved against a Shark for only so long before it becomes absolutely necessary to take a direct hand in the fight.

Since one of the Sharks is headed right for him... or rather right for the Red Zone.

His palms adjust his hovering and bring him back to a stationary position out of the path of the defensive weapon he'd brought up here into space, <<"JARVIS, get ready to fire.">> The big monster that is Vernon is circling around the ISS towards, presumably, Earth and Tony by extension. "Sir, I need another few seconds."

"That would have been really good information a few seconds ago..."

So here we are, a big monsterous sized space shark headed towards him and Tony, with his irrational phoebia hovering there in mid-void like some kind of later afternoon snack. Does he consider the possibilities of things he could have done differently until he's eaten? Of course he does. He considers how much better his party would be tomorrow if he weren't dead. He considers just how great a life he could live if he wasn't devoured right now.

He considers a streaming service.

Until the sound of JARVIS' voice fill his helmet.. "Ready." The AI says and Tony brings his hand up.

"Energize."

A series of beams fire all at once into a condenser positioned between them. It harnasses those beams into a concentrated firing solution and sends it out towards the approaching snout of one Vernon!

"Make a note about a potential streaming service." Sometimes fear brings about the best ideas.

Jane Foster has posed:
Vernon just wanted something to eat. That's all! He wanted something tasty and then there's this brilliant light aiming to pierce his perfectly lovely, sandpaper hide.

Tony's ignition comes with a stream of other small sparks and blasts as the ISS aims to stabilize itself after post-Aaron munching. Small spurts of gas help maneuver the poor, crunched on station.

Vernon's reaction to both having a person on his tail and a /burning hole/ in his side is predictably to turn the metal-clad snout at danger and open up really, really wide. He's trying to have his /lunch/ here, and Iron Man is a jerk.

Kitty Pryde, move on over for your poster.

Predictably? It charges. Look, they're not Reed Richsharks of the universe, okay?

On the other hand, how fast can he energize that beam before a really long space fishy intercepts him. Doo doo doo.

Stephanie's lure on his tail, however, does make it easier for her to affect his ability to steer, so it's a bit like an angry ocean liner committing to a turn and chasing someone with a sailboat tangled around the rudder or turbines or twirly-whirly bits.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
<<Got it, let me kn-->> Daisy never finishes the sentence, feeling the shudder running all over the ship and gritting her teeth. For a moment she thinks she was hit but no, it was Vin jumping off. Darn Asgardians and their darnful strength! But she doesn't stay around to appreciate the Valkyrie's flight straight to that eye because she immediately veers the ship away to evade the thrashing...

She turns, barrel rolls and gains some distance, just barely getting out of the way of Aaron, <<Holy Heck ..., are you actually riding it?>> This to Batwoman. <<If you need backup let me know. Going to pick up my passenger now...>> and she starts to turn the ship around to look towards Bob where Vin is still hanging on to.

She puts pedal to the metal and then is zipping in towards the large shark. David against Goliath kind of thing! She shoots the cannons again towards the shark's exposed belly before moving in closer to where Vin is. <<Flying by now, Vintridr. 3 2 1 ....>> and she flies right close to the valkyrie.

Kate Kane has posed:
Kate's got this! Grapples hook in, lodge tightly... /possibly/ because of those metal reinforcements, and she manages to land on Aaron's head and haul back on those grapple lines, trying to guide him away from the ISS... and hopefully towards Tony's imminently constructed Big Space Laser.. except... what the <censored>? <<"Uhhhh... did anyone know they have EYE LASERS?!">>

Kate works to haul Aaron around and her visor automatically darkens further as the darkness of space is split by one big honkin' laser... and... well, big fishes eat little fishes, right?

She lifts her boot and _drives_ it down into Aaron's back for lack of spurs, "Yahh! Full speed ahead, buddy!".

She at least doesn't broadcast it over comms, but she's doing her best to wrangle Aaron onto a path towards Vernon's mouth... you know, so he'll have something to eat before he eats Tony.

Kate lets Aaron's 'leash' go as Big Shark looms ahead of Smol Shark (relatively)

And while Kate might have forgotten the Bat Shark Repellant, she /did/ bring a 'Batman Frown-earning' amount of high explosives in her belt... and, well, she doesn't need it. So she's happy to slap it down onto Aaron's head like the worst pat on the head ever, shove a detonator into it, and then kick off of him and hit her thrusters to start flying away.... and giving the detonator a good 30 seconds.

She's pretty sure explosions don't go far in space because there's no atmosphere.

But she doesn't quite remember, because Kate is _not_ a science fiction fan.

And Giant Space Sharks aren't making her like it any more.

Vintridr has posed:
    Unfortunately, Bob's hide isn't sufficiently metallic to allow Vintridr to lock on with her boots, so she has to hold on to that spear and brace herself against Bob's gigantic eyelids as the leviathan thrashes in pain, and at the same time she twists that spear to maximize the damage.

    She glances up briefly as Daisy comes by for her second pass, and nods. << I see you, >> she confirms, then gauges her moment before pushing off at full strength again, tearing that spear out of the hole it had made, her thruster pack flaring a few times to randomize her course sufficiently that Bob won't have time to snatch at her before she's clear, then stabilizing her trajectory to intercept Daisy's ship.

    << Stay evasive - we have a body to recover. >> She closes her eyes for a moment, reaching out with her senses, then points her spear. << There. >>

Jane Foster has posed:
Aaron would rather not cooperate with Kate's efforts, mostly because he chomps everything he can get around to chomping. That means Daisy's ship or other debris, large objects that could potentially be tasty. The heated flare on his back from the lady stamping her foot that previously had thrusters makes the littler 150 meter long space horror whipping around, bucking and fighting like some mad sidewalk gone out of control. The lasers flash again and whoops, there goes a beam heating through some apparatus in the distance that used to house a mushroom colony in space. The Europeans will be very sad. Space truffles are a lot.

If the sharks can talk, they do. It's largely electric, actually, flashing and hurling dangerous words like 'out of my way' and 'where is my dinner, I get dinner, not you!' in bioelectric pulses. Someone ought to publish on that.

Also on the beam that smacks into Daisy's ship and another flying at Tony that's considerably more focused as a beam, albeit not nearly as shiny or flashy as his.

So Kate can sleep at night, she floats away while Aaron rolls around in front of Vernon. Her ability to get away dictates how close she is to a very quiet blast radius.

There /is/ sound in space. Just not a lot. Nor are those detonations soundless (see also: the Sun, it makes noise! Lots!) but they are pretty impressive.

Flash bangs and Valkyrie and Daisy piloting galore shall follow at frustratingly close range. Bob is contributing to those minor shockwaves as the hideously mean Asgardian /took his eye./ Now he is Odin of the shark peoples, and she had better hurry by holding on because he flips and rolls on her in some rush to stop the pain. Tearing its head from the spear might be possible, but the Valkyrie is shoved forward by the detonation that mean Aaron is now a headless filet and Vernon's nose is smoking along with the hole in his hide.

Metal bits fly. Shrapnel flies everywhere. Metal plinks off Daisy. Kate better be glad for carbon. Vin probably doesn't notice, it rebounds off her. Stephanie flails around in the ballistic wave, smart enough to position herself behind the bulk of the Death Star, Vernon.

Right as he swallows Tony Stark in a gulp and change.

MUNCH!

Tony Stark has posed:
<<"I'm inside a shark.">> This is said matter of factly and with no small amount of disdain for the fact that it's true and the fact that he had to say it. There are a lot of places he wants to be and this isn't one of them. Conversely...

There aint no metal plating in here.

Nope, just a bunch of soft internal tissues that aren't nearly as sandpapery as the hide protecting it... What's more, Tony Stark has a lot more weaponry than Drax. So when he starts firing off repulsor blasts and cluster missiles, it is with a great deal more efficacy than a pair of knives.

BOOM... Vernon's side balloons out, followed by the right... and the tail. The 450 million years of terror Vernon has writ upon the unassuming space fish of the galaxy? Well Tony Stark aint no god damn guppy.

With each successive blast, Vernon is rocked, trying to keep himself thrashing, but the final, massive, blast from the omni-beam radiating out from the center of Tony's Arc-reactor blows the big bastard apart into space goop. Ribs, tattered sharp flesh, and one floating Tony Stark covered almost entirely in gunk...

<<"When we retell this story, can we leave out the part where I vomited in my helmet?">>

Jane Foster has posed:
<<No.>> Mission Control is quick to reply.

<<I'm afraid we have a direct uplink to SHIELD, and therefore the Director.>> Jane makes a light aside before the rest of the traffic verbally comes to the raining shark guts hitting the ISS or the atmosphere. Really, what happens when a space shark re-enters Earth?

Sushi it is not. A really big shark fin soup bowl? Be glad the comms don't catch /that/ conversation or the hiss from a commander silencing it.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
As Daisy feels Vin's landing atop her ship is when she again throttles it up to full speed. << Relax, I learned with the best. >> Top Gun doesn't count, Daisy! And does that make Vin Goose? Hopefully not, because .., spoiler alert: he dies! But as Daisy says those words is when the ship is rocked by that debris, sending into a spiral and out of control. << Engine 1 is down...>> bless Tony Stark for having installed TWO engines in these ships. Good gosh is she glad for that.

And of course that all the spiralling out of control does make them evade all that thrashing of a pursuing Bob. Or Odin Bob? Something... A few moments later she gains control again and looks out the cockpit to check on Vintridr. Hopefully still hanging tight! She smiles apologetically and then resumes her trip towards the area Vin pointed to. A body? The plot thickens...

On in Tony's case what thickens is the inside of his helmet? She makes no comment. She doesn't want to be uninvited from the party.

Kate Kane has posed:
Kate's... not /happy/ to just float in space and consider the sight of Tony Stark being eaten... because she's /pretty/ sure there's an ethical dilemma if she tries to use that knowledge to adjust her investment strategy right now.

Also, after diving off a space shark and narrowly avoiding explosions, lasers, and probably a few threats she didn't know about, Kate /feels/ a piece of shrapnel skate across her back.

And that cool, blue HUD of routine displays is suddenly a lot more blinky and red and... alarming?

BWOOP BWOOP BWOOP

Yeah, that's a pretty alarming sound. The fact that she seems to be down to one boot thruster? Actually less alarming. Except, of course, that she's got almost no maneuverability when a wave of space shark detritus comes flying her way and everything goes dark for long seconds.

Fortunately, Kate /doesn't/ throw up in her helmet, because... well, she's not entirely sure why. Maybe the worry about her suit malfunctioning occupies her so she doesn't consider what she just flew through... or what flew around her? Oh god, she's thinking about it. Why? Why is she thinking?!

Vintridr has posed:
    << I'll make sure it won't be mentioned in the sagas, Man of Iron, >> Vin comments, apparently unconcerned by the plus-sized viscera she and Daisy are flying through. << This is something you may need to get used to when fighting monsters this size. Count your blessings that you were too small for it to properly chew on. >>

Jane Foster has posed:
You know Batman's going to perform a chemical analysis on Kate's suit. You just know it.

The ISS crew can't launch their own selves to safety, let alone help Kate or Daisy and Vintridr negotiate their way around. Heck, they cannot survive re-entry if it comes to that, and the valiant cobbled space station that could is tilting, orbit not exactly in the greatest of states. Alarm bells ringing from Moscow to Houston demand answers, though the immediate future means one big, pain-riddled shark still survives -- sort of. That's Bob. Bob is questioning his life choices.

Vaporized shark in the air does mean he can eat freely! He can frenzy for Aaron or the remains of blasted Vernon, all half kilometer of him, but really that tail section taking out the auxiliary solar array isn't enough to tempt him. He simply goes bonkers.

Which means bashing his way at top speed through the spew field, the debris and everything else left behind. He has one eye and the wisdom not to contest that crazy lady who stabbed him. Vintridr is mean! Daisy is mean! All of you are so mean.

He'll go cry about it to Mommy Shark later, do doo do doo doo do!

Which leaves the few scattered souls in need of retrieval and one very, very dead woman floating in space.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
With the sharks in disarray it's pretty much time to regroup and get out of there. Daisy continues piloting the ship towards the area Vin pointed to, even if she is getting no reads out of the HUD. Besides that big blinking yellow light.. It looks sorta important. << So, what does the ..., it looks like two arrows intersecting with a little wave underneath it means? >> a beat, << When it's blinking yellow.. >> it's yellow so she at least hopes it doesn't mean the ship will explode anytime soon..

<< Vintridr, can you spot out what you are looking for..? >> she will bring the ship over to where Vin points to in order for the valkyrie to retrieve it...

And then? Retrieval time. << Batwoman, need a lift? >> this to the drifting in space Kate.

Glorified pegasus, that's Daisy!

Vintridr has posed:
<< ... I can, >> Vintridr replies in an almost detached, faraway voice.

    She straightens up as the ship's course stabilizes and closes her eyes, then steps forward along the hull so that Daisy can see which way she's pointing the spear towards the dead goddess' corpse.

Tony Stark has posed:
Echoing from the bowels of some dark cavern comes the Eldritch chant of the cult who summoned these monstrocities to Earth.

~Baby shark...
Do doo dooooo doooo...

At least that's how Tony imagines it happening.

Thankfully, the remaining Space Dinosaur got the memo and is running for the hills. It leaves the begooed billionaire to think of a way to save the space station. Which, it turns out, isn't all the difficult when you brought up a bunch of multi-purpose devices. With the primary threat neutralized, the proximity field that was Red Zone begins to break apart. Sections seprate and fly towards the ISS. Patching torn off breaches, providing propulsion enough to keep it in space long enough for an actual repair crew to be launched from Justice League Moon Base... or shot out of a comically large cannon from Russia... Or whatever the world government decides to do.

Tony is looking down at himself, all covered in shark insides. Arms out wide, legs spread.

<<"Heeey everybody in Houston. we've got a pretty big problem up here, huh? This space station is banged up something fierce. I'll keep it floating for a little while, but... you're going to want to bring some repair crews.">>

<<"Or batman... I'm sure he can fix this no problemo.">>

Kate Kane has posed:
Kate's content to float around and generally be thankful her suit's integrity held up... less for the 'not dying in the harsh vacuum of space' side, and more for the 'Flew through a cloud of Space Shark guts and it didn't leak' way.

She's content to just float about and kind of... relax, at least until Daisy and Vintridr are pulling up, <<"I will happily take a ride... uhh... if you have like... a tarp to lay down for me to stand on, it seems polite."

Kate has a very clear list of return-to-Earth priorities, but number one is let the science nerds take samples off her suit... and then get blasted with a high pressure hose before she even /considers/ taking it off.

Space is gross. Kate will remember this.