16141/New Krypton Work Release Program

New Krypton Work Release Program
Date of Scene:	29 October 2023
Location:	Hyperspace
Synopsis:	The Supers and their Friends have their first encounter with the Kryptonian Hegemony fleet under the command of General Zod. It is a narrow escape against overwhelming fire power. The threat is barely understood - but our Zod and his criminal cohort proved themselves today. There's hope yet.
Cast of Characters:	Alura In-Ze, Monet St. Croix, Mark Grayson, Clark Kent, Jon Kent, Kyle Rayner, Conner Kent

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Alura In-Ze has posed:
When you really let the engines of the Kryptonian Scout Ship rip you get to see space in a whole new way. At the speed of light the universe folds in on itself. Viewing it is like staring in to an inverted fishbowl. But beyond that speed, it begins a beam of the past racing away from you.

Only a supercomputer can navigate at these speeds and it is quite a sight to behold. For longer journeys you can see who star systems form from bright explosions and settle in to a new stable state only to crash in to another star system and merge. Whole galaxies in the distance swirl around black holes and rip half apart before sling shotting away on a new journey.

Alura is transfixed by the beauty of it all. On Krypton they were isolationist. No one cared to travel the stars - it was culturally ingrained that there was nothing out there that they could not find within. Spiritually and technologically. This was not true - there was a vast inner universe, sure, but the vast outer universe was just as fascinating.

Today they carry with them some high value prisoners. Capturing them was not easy - but in the end it was an alliance between the heroes of Earth and the Dru-Zod's crew that let them defeat Brainiac. In some part Alura understood Zod. He just wanted to protect Kryptonians and Krypton. And now that job had been done - New Krypton was founded.

New Krypton had elected a new high council. The city was stable and rebuilding itself and the population was finally learning what it meant to be outside the bottle. The planet itself was far far away from most civilised space. Deliberately so. Hence the long journey they are undertaking.

But New Krypton was now the authority on all things Kryptonian and that also meant they had /strongly/ requested that Earth return their Kryptonian prisoners. Reluctantly and recognising the diplomatic ramifications if they refused, it was decided to hand over Zod and his crew to New Krypton - for rehabilitation.

General Dru-Zod, Non, Ursa, Val-Ty, Faora, Nam-Ek, and possibly the worst of them all Jax-Ur. They were all cuffed with power dampaners projecting red light back on to their bodies. There was no 'prison' on the ship but the fact that they were all behaving suggested that they too were on board with this trade.

"Kal..." Alura casually says to their Captain. "I met Batman. He's quite the guy. I can see why you two are friends."

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix would go to fold her hands together while moving to sit over on a console - well, mostly with the chair turned around to pay attention to things. "I do believe that this will resolve itself poorly. Do they even have the proper facilities for holding prisoners? Or the psychological awareness of how to treat them and grasp what they are capable of?" The Kryptonians may have been through a lot, but were they capable of holding their own kind captive? Much less ones so dangerous as these criminals? And could they perceive and understand the wrongs that they had done, and why they needed to be locked away?

Monet has been a voice of generally quiet protest along these excursions. But it has been minimally vocalized. The decision has already been made, and from a diplomatic standpoint it's a solid one. However, her ultimate focus is that there's too high a probability of this ending with an escape and the prisoners spreading their plans throughout the galaxy once more.

She would occasionally shift to the others, contemplative in general and minimally conversationally beyond voicing her soft opinion at times.

Mark Grayson has posed:
Mark came along to provide a little extra oomph to the security detail. Not that he was stronger than many of the Kryptonians on ths ship, but his powers are not affected by the dull yellow sun that New Krypton rotates around.

He glances over his shoulder to where the prisoners are located and quietly speaks, mainly to himself, but those with superhearing can probably easily hear his words.

"What's to say we give these guys over and they're back in six months looking for revenge instead of recolonization?" He knows what it's like to lose a fight and that urge to go back for a second round, to prove that you're better than you were that first time.

A sigh, and he goes back to looking out the window again, taking out his phone to snap a few pictures to bring home to Bunny.

Clark Kent has posed:
The "Last" Son of Krypton, the Man of Steel, Clark Kent, Kal El, Superman was present. He was adorned in his signature costume and his arms were currently crossed across his chest. His expression was neutral, but behind that neutral expression were stormclouds. This was not going to be an easy day.

Standing near the command chair, Kal moves to place his right hand on the headrest, Kal El was patient. It was obvious he was thinking too hard as he always did. Silent, but exhuding the same confidence those that knew him were accustomed to. It was notable that he didn't sit in the chair, just hovered near it.

Turning at the sound of Alura's voice, Kal smiles. That got him out of his reverie. "Yes. Batman is a good man, once you get past his gruffness and the costume. He is a stalwart ally, and a true friend. I am glad you got a chance to meet him. Have you met the rest of the team yet?" The rest of the JLA. After all, she was now a member.

Jon Kent has posed:
    "Batman is pretty cool." Jon states from where he was sitting, pretending to look over equipment readings and actually trying to flap birds into the correct place through a complex labyrinth of mazes, and then he reaches up to run a hand through his hair, and then sits back, a bit lax as he looks to M and to Invincible, and he shrugs his shoulders a little bit.

    "Well, if they do? We'll be there. All of us, and our allies." he points out, and he gives a bright, winning smile.

    "Something that they don't have at this point!"

Kyle Rayner has posed:
Kryptonian Prison is technically a Space Jail and when there is a Space Jail, there's at least one Space Cop nearby. That's why Kyle Rayner is here on the trip. Kyle's face holds a neutral position. Everything can be distracting. So many things he could point out, say or marvel at, but the situation is serious. So, he just tries to keep his eyes on the metaphorical prize. Do the job, make sure it's done then maybe he can go "off-duty" for a little bit. Allow himself to enjoy the splendor around him.

"He's intimidating," Kyle will add his two cents to the conversation. They haven't met, but Batman's reputation is vast and reaches out to several places. Kyle wouldn't be surprised if a few Moons have stories about a Terran Bat creature that haunts the planet.

Conner Kent has posed:
"What? No," Conner murmurs, but easily heard. He will never admit Batman is cool. Creepy, sure. Not cool. Nightwing is cool. Red Robin is cool. Not Batman.

"You know? Monet presents a valid point. Old Krypton sent criminals to the Phantom Zone. Which was both torture and sending the problem to future generations." Conner has already talked about this with Allura. "Prison should be about rehabilitation, not punishment. As happy as I am from getting this bunch away from Earth, this might actually be worse for everyone on the long term. Do you know are they planning to do with them?"

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura looks back over her shoulder in to the room beyond. The door has a window through which they can see the prisoners simply sitting. There's casual conversation going on in there. Super hearing reveals it to be discussions about what they expect from New Krypton.

"I've known Dru-Zod for longer now than I knew my own husband. He took the destruction of Krypton in a way the rest of us didn't. He got violent and desperate. But he was always a man of action. I think with rehabilitation he can find new purpose. The rest of them though -- i'm not so sure."

She looks over to Monet, "I understand why you're concerned. Kryptonian society doesn't work the way Earth society does. They are prepared and aware. The difference between Krypton and New Krypton is that I made sure they outlawed the use of the Phantom Zone as a prison."

Letting Kal brood about the situation isn't good for anyone. Her history with Zod is very different to those who grew up on Earth. She was a late comer to the party and Zod used force against those he considered unimportant in the protection of Krypton. But he was crazy. You can't account for crazy.

"The Flash. He's a nice guy. Green Arrow. Seems to stick with Flash a lot but I do like his ingenious arrows. Diana of course I met when I first moved to Earth and learnt to control my powers in Themyscira. Naturally, alternate reality daughter..." she doesn't name Power Girl. Those who know her know who she's talking about.

"There are still plenty more to meet. I look forward to it. Of course Diana keeps coming up with interesting training exercises. I do wonder if--" Her words are cut off as the ship jolts strangely and tumbles out of hyperspace. The stars twirl around them for a moment until the ship rights itself.

Alura approaches a console and looks at the flashing warning in Kryptonian, "We've been knocked out of hyperspace by an anti-hyperspace field." She considers thoughtfully and motions over the controls with a hand. A long range scan begins. "They're not naturally occurring."

Suddenly the power shuts down and the ship goes dark. Only the glow of Alura's bracer and its projected micro-holographic user interface illuminate her. "Well that's not good. Kryptonian technology shouldn't shut off like this."

Space before them carves a vertical line and it parts open in to the shape of a symbol that some of the crew on this ship have seen before. A hyperspace portal opens baring the likeness of the Kryptonian Hegemony.

The door in the back opens up and Dru-Zod walks through. Red light bathes him as he looks out at the hyperspace window that has appeared. "/bythtahn kryptahnium/" come from his lips as he looks at the 'word' cutting open space. The look on his face is one that is as perplexed as it is concerned.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix would just watch at the others, "Are they psychologically prepared for the inmates, thier incarcertaion, and the ability to properly guard them and aware of the consequences ofr failure?" She would shake her head. "Forgive me, I'm not being fair in my statements. I am making too many assumptions on the matter without evidence otherwise or indication." She goes to rest her hands over on the console and is about to go quiet over.. When the system suddenly slams shut over against it, moving to brace herself. She tenses, and swears quietly in her own mind. She moves to ready to put up a battle meld amongst the group to share information.

<<I am ready if telepathic coordination is required>> She goes to quickly scan over the data monitors - most of it will be beyond her, but there still might be some information along the console that she can pass along to let Alura and the ohters quickly evaluate and coordinate their response.

"the interdiction field likely will have been passed along our course ahead o ftime. I do not believe that we are along any major interstellar routes." Wasn't that the point of keeping New Krypton off the beaten stellar path?

So to her quick assessment, someone has tracked them, knew their path ahead of time, and has laid in wait to stop them. The ability to shut down Kryptonian tech itself is something that only a precious few in the galaxy should be able to do.

Clark Kent has posed:
Kal El looks over at Jon, and nods in support. "Batman can certainly be "cool" when he wants to be." That comment from Jon almost elicits a laugh from Kal, settling for a small chuckle. "He's one of us. A hero."

Kal takes a moment to nod in support to all the heroes on the journey with himself, Alura and the other Kryptonians.

Kal lets each one know silently he was grateful for their support. Kyle. "Never found him intimidating." Another warm smile for the space cop.

Monet. Mark. Then, a nod to each of his family. Jon. Alura. Conner. "Interesting points Conner. Monet. I can't say I disagree."

And a moment to remember those who had fought with them to this point who were not here in person, but in spirit.

"Excellent character analysis Alura." Kal shakes his head, amusement on his expression. Then, Alura cuts off..."What is it?" Pause. "Anti hyperspace...really?" Then dark. "Stay sharp everyone!" Kal ever quick on his feet. Then...Zod.

Mark Grayson has posed:
They are not going to make it to New Krypton. At least not at the moment. As the ship is ripped from hyperspace, Mark is thrown forward - moved a few feet before his feet come off the deck and he brings himself to a stop.

The phone is put away as the lights go off. "An ambush in other words?" he asks Monet, a frown creasing his features beneath the lenses of his mask.

He remains in place as the new figure arrives, ready to launch into action once the Kryptonians come up with a plan to carry out.

Jon Kent has posed:
    Jon is already onto his feet, phone secreted back into somewhere in his uniform as he lifts up and floats a few inches above the floor as the gravity and lights go out.

    "An ambush? In space? Who'd be coming to their rescue?" he asks incredulously.

    He just *had* to say something about allies, didn't he?

    He braces for new commands, drawing his hands into loose fists.

Kyle Rayner has posed:
Once the lights wink out, the glow of Kyle's ring starts to surround him. He's floating now since the gravity gives out. The ring chimes in with the obvious observation, "Sudden loss of gravity detected." Luckily these warnings only go off when Kyle is still and the gravity kicks off. IF it included space travel then he would hear warnings as if the ring was "Navi" from the Zelda series.

He'll push out a little more will to strengthen the field around him.

Conner Kent has posed:
It is lights out in space. If this was a movie, there would be an alien monster striking now. Since it is just a Tuesday... "This better not be the Guardians again," Conner gives Kyle a mock-glare. But the main suspect, of course, is Zod. Which looks confused, and the old general is not a good actor.

Conner stands up and... floats, "uh... no gravity either, right," then pulls a cellphone from his pocket. "Starkphone is fine, so it is just the ship. Could something be interfering with the power generator? Do we have auxiliary power reserves? A capacitor bank or something alike?"

If there was an instruction manual for the ships operations, he clearly didn't read past the tenth page.

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura's mind is racing. She was just talking about how she believed Zod could have a place on New Krypton. Perhaps even rehabilitate. Then this? is it wrong to jump to a conclusion. She round on him and then pauses seeing the look on his face.

Zod lifts up his cuffed hands. "This isn't me."

Alura then looks back at the gaping hole in space as a large ship begins to emerge. It's shaped like a giant energy weapon - front first, this thing was designed to obliterate things. It is, also, definitely Kryptonian in style. Just not the kind of style you'd see on New Krypton or in the Fortress of Solitude.

"This is impossible-" Alura remarks as she realises this isn't ye olde Kryptonian Hegemony, but the one her twin sister Astra's Hegemony. From a timeline that should have ceased to exist. "-and yet they're here." You can't deny what's right in front of you.

She dances her fingers over her bracer's interface. She looks over to Conner and nods, "They hacked us. Shut off the zero point generator and disabled all the systems. I'm trying to fix it." The ships power comes back on. Some of the systems are a little slow to recover though. "They knocked us out of hyperspace, hacked us, then opened a window through space. Only the Hegemony has the ability to understand the technology on this ship like that."

As the ship creeps through in to this space it becomes apparent just how big the thing is. A beam of energy shoots out from it and envelops the ship making it shake. A tractor beam. "We can't let them take us or board us. Right now we're probably the first bit of Krypton they've detected in space. If they learn about New Krypton... if they learn about Earth..."

Her lips press in to a thin line. Zod looks at Kal-El and then back to Alura. He's good at reading the room. "Let us help. We all worked hard to create New Krypton. The Hegemony was one of the most destructive forces in Kryptonian history. They will shatter our new world like a wave breaking upon the cliffs. What remains of our culture and heritage will be washed away to sea." He holds up his cuffs offering them to be removed.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix is about to snap 'no way in hell' towards Zod but defers to Kal-El on this. He might have faith in the power of redemption, but she's seen too many monsters that when given an open hand rend it off like the metaphorical scorpion does to the frog.

But now is not the time nor place for an argument. She goes to thens lip over to a telepathic communique to the others present unless anyone keeps her out of their minds. <<We're unable to flee and they'll be moving to secure us quickly. I presume that for all the effort they've gone to they'll move to seize us shortly and board.>> She's rather analytical about it.

<<They'll interrogate us present, review through all o fthe material on the data files, and discover anything of use. We need a plan. And quickly.>> She doesn't think that the computers have hte capability to be fully wiped in short order so that leaves their option of scuttling the craft.

She's thoughtful, analytical.. And gazing across space at the monitor of the large Hegemony ship. <<Will the architecture be consistent with what you are fluent with?>> To Alura. To Monet, negotiation will be useless. Her thoughts lie in immediate counterattack.

Clark Kent has posed:
Everything seems to move in slow motion. Obviously Kal's reaction to Zod's arrival was not a good one. He can feel himself floating, as though experiencing an out of body experience until he realises the artificial gravity was out.

Adjusting his motion, Kal stays firmly entrenched beside the command chair. "Stay calm everyone. We're still in this."

"Alura?" His voice was calm. Measured. Every bit a Superman. It was important for everyone else that he remain a pillar of stone. Cold, calm and collected.

Then Alura's words tell him what he was starting to feel...dread. Everything happens so fast...and then Zod's offer. Now that was a frown. Kal looks at Zod, his eyes burning into the man, sans heat vision. Without looking at his Aunt he says, "Do it."

"May Rao help us all...if you betray us Zod..." He leaves it unsaid. "This is for our people. I expect you to fulfill your oath and your code of honor, and be the General you SHOULD have been."

Mark Grayson has posed:
The arrival of the new ship and now that they are being approached, Invincible starts to feel a sense of dread down in the pit of his gut that only grows when Kal agrees to release the prisoners to help him.

The space is small, too small. <<Shouldn't we be deploying or something to try to push them back?>> he asks over the mental link with a frown. Instead, he's backing up closer to the other Titans that are on this mission. "Heads up." he warns Jon and Kyle.

Jon Kent has posed:
    Dread seems to be the feeling of the day as Jon looks up at the approaching ship, and he feels his own heart beat that much faster. His mouth hangs open a bit, and then he frowns, looking to the others in the room and gives an up-nod to Mark.

    <<Invincible's right, if it comes to close quarters fighting, we're all going to have to watch to not be in each other's way.>> he states, and following Clark's lead he goes to remove the bracers on one of Zod's compatriots.

Conner Kent has posed:
"That is a big ship," comments Conner. And if it is full of solar-charge Kryptonians, it is not going to be a good fight. He looks to his aunt. "Can we counter-hack?" Well, mostly, can Alura counter-hack? "We can probably get you some time. Although Zod's group lacks solar powers." Also, they were hacked from Hyper-space, that is nuts, maybe they have Brainiac working for them.

No comments about releasing them, of course Kal will give them another chance. Conner wouldn't be that generous. But in his defense, few would.

Kyle Rayner has posed:
<"I caught that. How bad is it?"> Kyle chimes over Titans coms. it's the only way he can espond, he thinks. Kyle's looking about for a moment tryng to just figure out how bad thi situation is. Kyle will keep the ring focused on Zod's crew. "Has anyone else seen Con Air? This might be relevant," he says honestly, just to show where his head is at right now.

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura ponders the suggestion from Conner a moment and then shakes her head. "This is the first time I've ever seen a hack to Kryptonian technology. I'm going to have to study what they did to us - once we're safe."

Alura then looks over to her nephew. The Man of Steel they call him. Because he can bend steel? because bullets bounce off of him? or perhaps it's because he has absolute nerves of steel. He's made the call. It's why they chose him as Captain. She looks back at long time friend but more recently enemy and stares Zod in the eyes.

"Dru..."

"Alura I understand," Zod says and holds out his cuffs again to her. "I won't let you down. Again. Any of you."

She frowns. Such bold words from the man who fought them all bitterly for years.

She motions over her bracer and the red lights shut off; the cuffs open up. The others in the back rise and join them for release. A crew of heroes and villains all together in a tiny little crystal ship in the middle of nowhere. A bigger predator baring down on them.

"I'm sorry Monet. I don't know anything about the internals of Hegemony battle cruisers." She waggles a finger thoughtfully as Mark wonders if they should deploy. "But we do know all of them are super powered. They wear belts that carry yellow sun light in them to give them powers even when there's no yellow sun around. We liberated a few from that timeline for our own use."

She looks out at the giant ship. "That means they're likely prepared to fight back against super powers. But we're packing perhaps more fire power than they realise. However, the weapon on that ship is no doubt even more powerful than all of us combined."

"No - the answer must lie in science." Their ship is drifting toward the juggernaut slowly. The Hegemony ship is in no rush. They're scooping up this curiosity and have no fear. "Simply applying pulling force to the ship is a battle of who has more power. That would never work in the long term. Not if they intend to use this in the battle field."

She starts to pace as Non and Jax-Ur look out at the big ship that will swallow them whole. "They must be latching on to something else then," Jax-Ur suggests. For a mass murderer he was none the less one of the most brilliant scientific minds Krypton ever produced.

Alura snaps her fingers, "You're right. There's only one thing on this ship they could be latching on to. The FTL drive."

She spins around, her cape twirling in the zero gravity about her body and then uncoiling. "But they don't know I have an experimental drive on board. So we pull the FTL drive out and we're free. We will need to stall for time."

She looks to her family and friends. Superwoman stands before them with an decisive expression. "Time for action. Monet watch the scanners. Coordinate telepathically if they launch a counter offensive. Everyone who can handle space go out there and shoot at that ship's tractor beam. Jax-Ur and I will disconnect the FTL drive and jettison it. Don't go far. I'll spin up my experimental Phantom Drive the moment we're free."

Zod turns to his fellow criminals, "You heard her. Let's blast that ship with our heat vision." Begrudgingly they accept their leaders order and the group rush toward the airlock.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix would glance over at the scanners. Her grasp of Kryptonian is not quite sufficient to gleen all the technical details, but among the english, the very logical setup of the monitors, and the data falshing she can track most of it. She would glance over at Alura thoughtfully.

"So, it won't be analogous to normal Kryptonian designs?" A military craft would be different from a civilian one- much less from another reality run by a fascist dictatorship. Another thought.

"If science.." She would muse. "How fast could we propel this craft forwards among ourselves? Those that can function in vacuum. "And does Kryptonian technology have inertial dampeners that can lsow a craft going towards them at high speed?" She's hoping that amongst multiple Kryptonians and a Green Lantern they can just /rush/ the much bigger ship. Inertia is very much a thing of science.

And if the Hegemony presumes that they're disabled and adrift and will be bracing on the ship to repel boarders.. Well, then rushing in unexpectedly might give them an advantage to get aboard. It's not a particularly great idea, and the others will likely have better ones. But it's still a possible tactic.

Mark Grayson has posed:
"I assume I'm not going to be able to go fly and punch the ship." Mark laments the fact that he does not have laser vision or an attack ring or the like. However, when someone hands him a rifle, his eyes light up. "Oh yeah. This will work."

With that, he's joining the others to deploy out - but he's remaining close to the ship as he quickly gets educated on how the rifle works, so he doesn't like -- try to shoot with the safety on.

Jon Kent has posed:
    "I don't know, we could always fly and punch the ship." Jon states in a friendly manner, and he balks a moment.

    "... using heat vision?" he asks, and looks a little blanched, blue eyes dulling a moment as he shrinks back, and then gives a dire nod, rubbing the back of his neck before he turns to follow all others out into Space.

    "This is the worst, this is the worst--" he mutters under his breath, awrack with nervousness.

Conner Kent has posed:
"I don't think my heat vision can cause damage to something that size," admits Conner. But he is going out too, in the case the crew of the other ship gets out to try to stop the counter-attack. And maybe also to keep an eye on Zod. Conner thought they wouldn't have powers, but they do.

"C'mon, Jon," he calls the other Superboy, "you have not figured out how to use the heat vision yet? Just watch out for hostiles."

Alura In-Ze has posed:
"I said stay close to the ship. We're going to leave in a hurry. Charging that thing or trying to punch it is suicide." Alura says matter of factly, giving Monet a firm stare. She points to Jax-Ur and heads to the guts of the scout ship.

As the crew and 'cargo' of the Kryptonian scout ship disembark, they flow out the two side hatches unfurling like a detached set of wing weapons. If it weren't invented on the spot one might think they had trained in it. Perhaps it's easy to take the queue from Zod who is a General after all and his tactics are quite effective. It took a tussle with Brainiac to take him down after all.

The combined heat vision of the criminals, Kal-El, Conner, Jon, and Mark with a Kryptonian weapon in hands blast at the distant ship. The strength of these weapons does not diminish with distance - there's no atmosphere here to get in the way.

Explosions rip along the hull of the ship. Tiny little dents tell the story of just how big that ship is. It is one big super weapon the size of New York City. As the weapons sweep over the enemy ship it's clear the attack is working. Hatches begin to open and black drones pour out. Even though they're huge it's clear they don't want to be blasted at. The drone thrusters fire and they begin barrelling at high speed toward them.

Jax-Ur and Alura begin to cut through crystal structures with their heat vision. Disassembling the FTL drive safely is not something you're meant to rush but they aren't exactly rich in time right now.

"I never meant to destroy the moon base you know."

Alura scowls and gives him a glance across from the other side of the room. "The science council said no to your experiment and you went ahead with it anyway. You killed millions and destroyed one of our moons. You're going to have to accept that you were responsible if you're ever going to move on."

Jax-Ur frowns as he's called out and resumes his work. Alura wasn't going to be the easily goaded ally he had hoped. As the FTL machinery groans, the pair pick it up and carry it to the rear air lock. It's not easy with the tractor beam pulling on it.

As they toss it out, it quickly changes trajectory and rockets off toward the hegemony battle cruiser. "Well. Now we're stranded. I sure hope this new engine of yours works better than mine did."

Alura glowers at Jax-Ur and states, "It had better." She moves to a console and activates the Phantom Drive. It begins to spin up. It was Brainiac's giant portal to the phantom zone that gave her the idea for this thing. Yet another victory against the robotic murderer. If it works that is..

<<"Do as much damage as you can and get back on board quickly.">>

Monet St. Croix has posed:
And Monet waits on board the ship. She does not have the capabilities to operate independently in space, and even in a sealed bodysuit and tether a small puncture will make her risk being exposed to vacuum. And she'd be putting the others at risk with her actions and make them have to worry about covering her in a tight in and out operation on the Hegemony ship.

So she stays over in her position, ready to launch along to the consoles if needed, and going to try and maintain her mental link amongst her teammates going to move to disable the Hegemony ship enough to let them escape. It's hard.

They're operating at a distance of dozens of kilometers away, moving at high speed, and wiht the interference coming from the ship itself and the cold vacuum. It's pushing her to her limits and isn't something she can just brute force her way through or get by on willpower. It requires intense, focused concentration and induces vertigo. It's a good thing for her that she can remain seated.

She acts as a communicator for the rest to let them share information along as need be to engage the enemies, even as she closes her eyes and braces her ankles down to the floor to gie her more of a sense of connection tot he ground, even without gravity holding her down there. She's able to do it.

For the most part.

Mark Grayson has posed:
"That's no moon." Mark murmurs as he sees how far and how little the damage is done to the ship from even this distance. Okay, this rifle, he likes it. Even if it's not really his style.

Which means as he fires at the drones, his shots are wild and inaccurate at times, but he is managing to do some damage, before there's the call from Monet to withdraw. Without fail, Mark is quickly making his way back to the air lock and back within the ship.

Jon Kent has posed:
    "I really, really don't wanna talk about it --" Jon had commented to Conner before going out into space, and had paused for just a moment to give a slight grin at Mark.

    Jon slings drones around like it's going out of style, smashing the drones into one another, zipping around the field of battle -- still hasn't gotten over that little issue with his own heat vision.

    But through space, he keeps the ship ship-shape with repelling bots, and seems to have pretty decent aim -- not to mention a hell of a throwing arm.

Conner Kent has posed:
"Just drones? Maybe the crew is not powered up," comments Conner. Should they be so lucky? Because a ship the size of a city is... stupidly large. He thought only the Shi'ar run that kind of oversized things. Even Khund battlewagons are tiny in comparison.

As for the drones, his heat vision can even melt iron, it is not good. But his tactile telekinesis does nasty thing to machines, so he goes forward to turn a few drones into spare parts before they get to the group.

But he only gets a few when he receives Monet's telepathic message to withdraw.

Alura In-Ze has posed:
The drones take the beating. they're designed to after all.. and as they get closer those that survived unfold in to a big shield. Behind them, those with supervision realise they cannot see through them except the small gaps -- and through the small gaps they can see Kryptonians begin to emerge with glowing red eyes.

The shielding drones begin to blast back as the crew boards back in to the ship. The beams barely miss the people but do skitter across the ship making it vibrate dangerously inside.

"Alright everyone," Alura says waiting for Kal-El to give her the thumbs up that everyone is on board, "... here goes nothing."

The Phantom Drive activates. Space goes dark on one side of the view screen. There's a sense of emptiness flowing through the ship as if their souls were being sucked from them. On the other side of the ship the starts begin to streak.

Alura comes back out to the bridge and looks at the instrumentation. "Whoa. That's - may be a little TOO fast." They are skimming along the edge between real space and the phantom zone. It's like the universe is battling with itself right where they're flying. And in moments they find themselves back in normal space in orbit around New Krypton.

Alura nods her head, "We're going to have to warn everyone on Earth. If the Hegemony has made it here from the other time line - no one is safe."

---

In the dark of space a large fleet of ships watches as one of their gun ships progresses through the portal to capture the rogue Kryptonian scout ship.

Victory is at hand until suddenly the ship disappears. "They're gone General," says the imperial at the console.

"Define .... gone." asks General Zod of the Kryptonian Hegemony.

"Some new kind of transportation we've never seen before. I detect aether particles. They might have fled in to the Phantom Zone. We won't be able to track them."

General Zod lifts his chin as he looks out at the battle field. A minor skirmish, barely of note. "It doesn't matter. Like everyone else, they will eventually Kneel."