17336/HUNGER: Pirates! The Trojan Horse

HUNGER: Pirates! The Trojan Horse
Date of Scene:	08 March 2024
Location:	SPAAAAACE
Synopsis:	The Trojan Horse is boarded by space pirates, who are unfortunate to find that it contains Greeks. And Kryptonians, Akiar, Assassins, Space Knights and Green Lanterns. It's a bad day to be a pirate -- though as it turns out, these pirates are not a part of the eyepatch brigade after all.
Cast of Characters:	Donna Troy, Natasha Romanoff, Diana Prince, Kyle Rayner, Caitlin Fairchild, Cassie Sandsmark, Alura In-Ze, Kian

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Donna Troy has posed:
    The Spaceport is full of aliens. Despite the concerns of the gutter press, the spaceport authorities have not dumped a vast number of aliens into cities around the world without consultation; instead one of the landing pads has been converted into temporary accommodation, while the UN High Commission for Refugees figures out what the hell to do about the problem.

    So far it isn't the hugest of problems, really. The total number of refugees, arriving in eleven ships, is just a little over a hundred. The ships however come from a much, much larger refugee flotilla, a vast convoy of over fourteen thousand civilian ships gathered together by the shared experience of having lost their worlds to one tragedy or another. The flotilla has been traveling the star lanes and growing, planetary disaster by planetary disaster, for centuries. Some of the aliens involved don't even remember what destroyed their worlds.

    There has however been a recent change for the refugees. The flotilla has come under attack from a reportedly large, powerful and very well organized group of pirates. The refugees had decided that Earth, a strange and primitive world but one with a growing reputation for punching far above its weight, would make a good sanctuary. Who knows what the gutter press will start saying if they learn there are potentially thousands more alien refugees on the way.

    Unless something is done about the pirates.

    A plan has been hatched, and word gone out to the teams who have bases at the space port, inviting them to join in. The Archeopians have volunteered one of their ships. The other, which was saved from a lethal crash landing, is under repair and acting as the temporary home for the crew of both, while the smaller vessel will be used to offer the pirates what they will hopefully discover is a far less tempting target than it appears.

    Standing on the ship's boarding ramp discussing the upcoming mission are Donna Troy and Taras, Spaceknight of Galador. Defender of the Galadorian ship amongst the refugees, the tall armored figure has volunteered to join the heroes of Earth on this mission, as his own people are now safe on Earth, and someone who knows what region of space the refugees and their piratical predators can be found is necessary to the mission.

    "The whole point is to find out information," Donna argues with the tall Galadorian. "The priority is to capture them for questioning. To find out how large the pirate fleet is, what their weaknesses are, where to find them. Your desire for revenge is counter-productive, and if you can't leave that behind you, we are leaving you behind. Do you understand?"

    The tall armored shape stands utterly still, like a statue. After a few moments he nods his head. "I understand," he says, and marches onto the ship. Donna gives a small sigh and follows him in.

    It's time to get this mission on the road!

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Pirates are something that the Black Widow knows well. Assassins, raiders.. This is a counter-intelligence operation. Whether they're going in to try and parley or simply neutralize the enemy leadership. She's quite fluent in how these sorts of things work. She's not going to bea mong the more.. Flamboyant and creative members present of the heroes responding to the crisis with the refugees, and many of her methods likely won't fly in the circumstances either. But she's here to be available in case her talents lend themselves to better conflict resolution.
    When it comes time to the mention of.. Capture and interrogate there's just a small, small smile over on her lips that quickly vanishes. She's a professional, after all. She's done her research, a bit of training, and an extensive review of boarding and counter-boarding operations. It's the first time that she's done it in space for awhile - the last time SHIELD had to do such a thing was under rather.. Fuzzy circumstances and may ro may not have happened (Kang lead to strange things). But she was as realistically ready for the circumstances as could be with a rather heavy kit available. She was coming with a full combat loadout for this circumstances. And very ready not to play nice.

Diana Prince has posed:
The Invisible Jet was on hand to join as an escort for this mission, or outing. Wonder Woman had been inside the arrival center, interacting with the public, ever wishing to spread a little more happiness within the hearts of those who wish to meet her. But she was well aware of needing to be at a specific place, at a specific time, and as such, coming down one of the walkways toward the various landing platforms near to where the main ship being used today, the Princess of Themyscira is wearing a red shoulder shawl that whips gently in the wind around her shoulders, partially concealing her standard Eagle Armor from view.

She is also carrying a cardboard stick with chocolate cotton candy (who knew that was even a thing!)

With a ginger step in her armored boots, Diana's eyes go toward the alien vessel, seeing Donna in final preparation, which earns a small smile from her elder sister.

"Coming with me, Cassie?' She asks the OTHER sister, before taking another small bite of her tasty puffy cottony treat!

The Princess turns down an alternate pathway and heads toward the very Visible Jet, its sleek hull shining in the sunlight glimmering high in the sky above.

Kyle Rayner has posed:
Kyle Rayner will float down near the ship's ramp. A glow of Green Energy surrounding him before the energy fades. "I'm sure I can quote some galactic rule if we need order," he manages to catch the tail end of that discussion. Kyle does try to pitch in whenever anything terrestrial comes into play. A sense of obligation due to the piece of jade on his finger.

Though the green eyes are hidden under the mask, Kyle will soak in everything around him. It's odd to feel like he's on a place like Xandar, when it falls into Earth's wheel house. Sometimes he wonders if Earth isn't as behind as other planets believe it is.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin's right there with her family; Amazons and Titans alike. She wears silver-and-gold armor with a distinctly Amazon flair, flexible but sturdy. As the Titans shuffle past she gives out encouraging touches (and fusses over emergency respirators a time or two). The redhead herself is carrying an extra-large backpack in one hand, packed to the brim with food, water, and medical gear.

"Remember, everyone," she tells the Titans. "Respirators and beacons at all time. You can survive in a vacuum for a little while, but not for long. Always keep those with you once we're airborne."

Caitlin casually tosses her backpack-- which weighs more than Kian-- over her shoulder and starts heading up the ramp at the tail end of the Titan contingent.

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
Cassie is, indeed, coming with Diana!

"Uh, it'd be weird if I came all the way out to the Starport and then just hung out at the Taco Whiz," she replies, in her typically sarcastic manner. They apparently got a franchise at the food court. Which means that yes, indeed, she's coming, ambling behind the most Wondrous of them at her own slightly lagging pace.

She is, naturally, semi-distracted between the mission details and her phone, which she is - and has been - using to extensively document the situation at the Starport. With negative press agitating against the aliens, it's almost a forgone conclusion that the Wonder Zoomer is fielding a media counteroffensive with amongst her very politically-motivated fanbase. "Ooh look, there's Taras! Remember him? He kinda acts like he has a stick up his tailpipe, but I get the feeling he's a kind of honorable dude underneath all that."

Once she makes it to the gangway, she turns back to get a parting show around the bay behind them. "Take a last look at Earth! Er. Well, hopefully not last, but you know what I mean. I may lose conneciton soon, you'd be surprised how far the internet DOESN'T go in space. But I'll be keeping a vlog."

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura has been watching the refugees for a while now. They remind her greatly of herself, of her daughter and nephew. The last of their kind and their future offspring who all seem to have travelled back in time to make a family unit. She knows what sanctuary means to these people.

Her attention turns to Diana and she lifts up her Kryptonian gauntlet in a general indication that she too is bringing reinforcements. Her ship. But it's the alien ship Donna is on that Alura actually boards. The Kryptonian ship is cloaked and ready to move with them.

"At the heart of all crime is a need. It's possible they are also in need of refuge and took to crime to survive instead of cooperation. Ideally we can negotiate with them to cease their operations by offering them a home."

Kian has posed:
    "I don't know what it is about Earth that attracts so many offworlders," Kian muses to himself as he follows his teammates.  "And while I don't understand pirates, I'm familiar with being a refugee on this world at least."
    He doesn't stop walking, but he does fall silent for a moment.  "Except I'm not a refugee anymore, I really do think of Earth as home now.  So I really hope it's not a *last* look!"
    Space travel, though, that's mundane.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Right now, Kian? It's that we've stopped a few invasions," Donna explains to her alien team-mate, who's own arrival on Earth had been purely accidental. Or possible the work of some divine plan. "The Galaxy is a dangerous place, and finding a planet to live on that's capable of defending itself... it's not hard to find why people might find that an appealing concept."

    As the team boards their respective ships, Donna follows Taras into the ship's bridge, and takes a seat at the comms console. Taras is on navigation, and Caitlin is the designated pilot -- she has already had a run-down of the ship's controls from the Archeopian pilot. Given the rather large size of the Archeopians by human standards, it's an unusually comfortable pilot seat for her.

    Once she's in place, Donna opens comms to the Invisible jet so the people on the two ships can stay in constant communication, then turns her chair to face the rest of the crew. "Okay. The big metal guy's name is Taras. He's going to direct us to the region of space where the refugee fleet is hanging out, and we're going to see if we can get ourselves targeted by the pirates. This ship is unarmed, so it hopefully is going to look like a good target. The pirates M.O is to steal the ships, not just rob them. So our hope is to get boarded, and board them right back. Our aim here is to find out as much as we can about the pirates so we can deal with them, so while there will undoubtedly be some fighting involved, this is a fact finding mission. Diana, keep the disc in full stealth mode when we reach the target zone, and stay hidden until the pirates have drawn alongside us. When they board us, you board them from the other side if possible and we meet in the middle. That's the general plan anyway, but obviously it all depends on what actually happens out there."

    "The route is programmed in," Taras announces. "Let us go."

    Donna gives a nod to Caitlin. "Anyone got any questions, ask on the way there. Taras here is our expert."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Counter-boarding operations. Something she knows. Natasha goes to sit in the passenger seat of whichever craft she's on then while musing and speaking to the comms <<I'll be infiltrating the craft once the melee starts and the field of battle has stabilized and look for an opportunity to bypass as many of the assault crews as possible. Normal boarding doctrine calls for at least three to one superiority in combat personnel. Particularly with a seizure. Defenders have an immense superiority with their ability to seal off sections of the ship and engage in bottlenecks with full cover. First waves have to be violent and aggressive. They overrun and breach with superior numbers and firepower, and keeping momentum is of paramount importance. The longer the ytake, the longer the crew can get into defensive positions and seal off areas. The first groups will rely on massive amounts of firepower at close quarters. Presuming they want to take the craft intact they'll likely have primarily personal weapons>> By that she meant primarily hand weapons. <<And minimal heavy weaponry. The second wave will likely have heavier weapons with them once the first wave has slowed down and identified strongpoints.>>
    She muses on thoughtfully <<Primary targets for assault will be bridge, engineering facilities, and secondary command and control.>> Seize where the ship is controlled and where it's powered from and flies from.

Diana Prince has posed:
As they are boarding the cloud-hued Visible Jet, Diana peeks over Cassie's shoulder. "Viewership is up. that is good." She states, smiling to those watching, and offering a sock-puppet wave over Cassie's opposite shoulder.

Once inside the Jet's yacht-like interior, Diana settles in to the cockpit controls, her Cotton Candy worn down to mostly just cardboard stick, that she lays across a console edge. Her eyes scan over the various holo-displays, and her fingers stroke across their screens, manipulating the light that makes up the displays, which activates internal systems within the ship itself.

"Acknowledged." Diana's voice sounds out over the shared comm system. "We will be in full stealth before we leave the Sol System..."

It isn't long there-after that the jet does lift up from the starport landing platform, effortlessly, and near-silently gliding up in to the sky, before it shimmers and entirely vanishes, leaving some on the ground speaking in to their devices, as they were recording the sight of getting to see Wonder Woman's alien spacecraft in action.

Inside the jet, as it ascends toward space at a rapidly increasing speed, Diana reaches for her Cotten Candy stick again, placing what was left to her lips to finish it off.

Treats are important.

Kyle Rayner has posed:
Kyle tries to figure out if he should be on a ship, then which one. It would save power on the ring. But that's one more seat someone else could have. Plus the complications of basically parachute jumping in space. Oxygen is a very important thing for most people on this mission.

Kyle will double check his titans com, "Check." He'll flick through other stations he's part of, "Check." "Check." And even hit the Kryptonian signal with the room, "How am I coming in over there?"

With that in order he'll bring the energy around his person. Willing to fly out solo lest an invite come that won't jeopardize half the crew if, or when, he needs to leave the ship.

"Good luck everyone," Kyle's not convinced this won't go pear-shaped somehow. Nothing is ever easy.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin looks over her shoulder at Donna and nods once. She turns back to the controls and puts her fingers into the sensor gloves. The system took a little getting used to; no buttons to click, just tactile feedback and pressure zones. But the redhead figured it out fast enough and she gets the engines warming up immediately.

"All right everyone, get to your seats and engage your safety restraints," she says. Her voice echoes weirdly as the intercom amplifies it. Fingers wiggle inside the gloves and the organic crystal display flickers with feedback and information for the pilot. "All stations, signal ready and engage restraints. Anyone needs to go the bathroom, you'll have to wait until we clear the troposphere."

With one last nod at Taras, Caitlin engages the engines and the ship leaps skywards with a smooth acceleration. Once they rise about 500' vertically, she aims the nose at the sky and engages the accelerators. The ship arrows towards the upper atmosphere; from the windows, the passengers can see the sky turn pale, then dark as the blackness of space takes over. The ship shudders and protests as it gains speed, but once they leave the atmosphere all the noise and vibration abruptly stops and they leave the tiny blue marble in their wake.

"Proceeding to jump coordinates," she announces.

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
As Donna explains their cunning plan, Cassie shifts the phone over that way to frame her. Good clip! Very leader-y! And when she gets to the point of 'when they board us...' she swaps it back into selfie mode and holds her clenched fist up beside her face. "Oh they'll be in for a surprise when they come messing with us!"

Lots of emotes in the chat for that!

Things die down as she boards behind Diana, but her mentor's commentary on her metrics - Diana learns quick! - earns a big grin. "The whole alien refugee thing has people really engaged, but this kinda stuff, well... it definitely gets the views." Yes, punching tends to be more popular than pure politics. Punching in PURSUIT of those ideals? That's a whole extra level of hype. And of course, since Diana is looking back, Cassie tilts the phone to make sure to get a good shot of arguably the most famous woman in the world.

She gets a lot of emotes too, albeit slightly different ones...

She ends stream on the dramatic ascent up into the Invisible Jet. "See you guys on the other side!" Are there security concerns about filming inside? Nah, she's done that before. But since they're split between the ships, she probably can't afford to loaf around as much as she usually does while someone else handles the driving. Not that the disk can't basically fly itself, but a dangerous situation might require manual efforts. And thus, stowing her phone, she resumes proper hero-ing and goes up to join Di in the copilot position. "Looks like we're good to go!"

And then they do. VROOM!

Kian has posed:
    Kian snickers.  "Of course I have questions, but probably none of them are going to help the situation, or me... actually, I do have one useful question.  Are they using energy weapons or projectiles?  I can be useful against energy weapons.  I'm pretty sure I can't stop projectiles."
    He watches Earth recede.  "I think I understand why my people haven't tried to contact any of the civilizations whose signals they've detected.  You really have no way of knowing what you're going to meet until it's too late."

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura stands on the bridge. No seat is taken. She folds her arms quietly behind her as she takes in the control stations. The plan is simple enough. As they start to take off she lifts up her bracer and motions over its holographic interface. With a swish the stealth Kryptonian scout ship rises up right behind the other two ships. Well, she assumes it's behind the invisible jet - that thing is very invisible.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Natasha, keep in mind that numbers aren't likely to count for much in this situation," Donna says. "We're undoubtedly going to be outnumbered, but I'll be very surprised if they're not seriously out-powered. If we end up in separate groups, which is quite likely, we just ensure that each group has at least one person capable of tearing holes in walls if they try to seal sections off. Just remember we're in space. No tearing holes in exterior walls. As Alura says, we don't know the situation. They may be desperate rather than evil."

    The ships rise up through Earth's atmosphere and into the dark embrace of space, where Taras transmits the hyperspace co-ordinates to the others. The ships are on their way.

    It takes a while. The target area is in a pretty remote region of space, well away from any of regional space empires and a good portion of the distance to the edge of the galactic disk. There's plenty of time during the voyage for people to relax and prepare. Enough time for Donna to encourage Kyle to relax and reserve his energy for the fight. She doesn't have an answer to Kian's question, but Taras does. "Photonic weaponry," the Spaceknight tells him. "They are well organized. Standardized equipment. Even uniforms."

    When the ships arrive at their target location, the wait continues. Donna calls up a tactical display which mostly shows a whole lot of empty space. Only when she zooms out to the maximum can signs of the refugee fleet be seen on the scanner -- a river of tiny dots, all well-spaced out, stretching far beyond scanner range in both directions. There's not much else to do for a while than study the fleet while waiting for something to happen. For the ships close enough to get details of, it's a very random assortment. There are a lot of cargo freighters, presumably converted into homes for the refugees. There are vessels that are obviously very old, which show so many signs of patched repairs and parts cobbled together that you wonder if there is a single panel left from the ship that had originally left the dockyard. There are plentiful small ships that couldn't really hold more than a family, and battered old behemoths that could house thousands.

    There are very few signs of weapons.

    Finally. "We are being scanned," Taras reports. "Small vessel. Now gone."

    "Scouts?" Donna suggests. "If so... there's nothing pirate-looking in range so we've probably got a bit of time before they can report back to wherever and bring an actual..."

    Donna is interrupted by a blare of sirens as a hyperspace jump point opens virtually on top of the trojan horse vessel, and a well-armed ship appears. The ship's console flashes with an incoming message, which the computer helpfully translates from Interlac to English: <<Deactivate your engines and prepare to be boarded. Resist and you will all be killed. Cooperate and we will allow you to live.>>

    Caitlin deactivates the drive while Donna replies to the message. "We are unarmed civilians, we carry no cargo of value. Please let us go on our way."

    <<Negative. Transfer your airlocks to external control and prepare to be boarded. You have one minute.>>

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
The Black Widow had been making her point for those that didn't have an exact idea to what they would run into. It was just a quiet one and in the greater scheme of things unimportant - as Donna stated, outnumbered meant little when they had sufficient expertise and firepower. As they go to drop out of jump space she's going to stand up from her seat. There's a click over as she mvoes to activate gravity clamps in her boots, and goes to seal a facemask on that starts circulating oxygen through her systems and keeping up an airtight seal.
    Her outfit goes to flicker, and then moves to blend in with the surroundings, matching the coloration of the background well. Stealth mesh working with the chameleon circuit. Another toy of Nadia's that was extremely useful. Hopefully better enough than the tech that pirates had cobbled together out of stolen ships and mixed alien toys to let her bypass any security they had in place. She goes to remain completely silent, her location present on the comm network - or any of those nearby that had enhanced senses and could track her. Now was the time to get ready and as soon as the fighting started to bypass the first wave and get onto the hostile ships and see what information she could get while avoiding the fighting.
    On her back is a large railgun with multiple fire modes just in case it's needed for close quarters combat. Hopefully she won't need it. If she has to use a weapon, it means that she's been detected.

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura's vision zooms in on the flotilla. She is reminded of Krypton's own life boat - Argo City. In its final days it started to resemble that kind of cobbled mess. She never saw its final days though, only the footage recorded by Kara.

"It will take that flotilla far too long to get to Earth. If we're to provide them sanctuary in the long run we will have to find a faster way to get them home." Her mind is already working through the problem. There's always upgrades; but the theta beam network might prove the most effective way if there's a doorway nearby. She doesn't know enough about the network to say for sure yet.

"Hm. It seems the bait has worked." With a swish over her hologram she moves the hidden Kryptonian ship in front of the pirate's weapons ports. "Just in case they get trigger happy, I'm confident my ships shields will absorb .. what did you call it? photonic weaponry."

Diana Prince has posed:
The Invisible Jet is already in full stealth mode by the time the matched hyper-jump route is calculated, and initiated. Once in hyperspace, Diana runs over possible scenarios via a holographic projection plate in the center of the cockpit's forward facing flight chairs. She spends a significant amount of time running over these projected possibilities for what they could find when they arrive, while the ship itself simply travels through the cosmos, barely even making a whisper of a hum, the Lansinarian technology a marvel to behold.

Eventually, though, Diana finds Cassie, and it doesn't take too long before she's proving to her young protege that she can dance like those in the videos that Cassie had pulled up.

It is not the kind of thing Diana would publicly do, probably, but still, she's a fast learner after only moments of watching!

Once the full flight time has passed, however, Diana is back in the cockpit, and keeping a watch over the situation, as it unfolds. She's changed outfits now, and is wearing her golden armor,a helmet of an Eagle's Head resting in her lap.

"We have trouble." She tells Cassie, glancing over her shoulder. "Move to the exit collar. I am going to dock with this ship, as they do not seem to notice our presence yet..."

The Princess guides the Jet in to a sliding pattern up against the enemy bulk freighter, and with a silent latch, the Invisible docking collar of the Lansinarian ship attaches to the hull of the bulk freighter. Diana rises from her chair, and proceeds toward the boarding area. Her helmet is placed upon her head, her lasso, sword, and shield, upon her person.

With a glance toward Cassie, and a light nod, the Princess looks toward the external hatch of the bulk freighter before her, and she raises her right foot up, and delivers one solid kick to the enemy ship, blowing the hatch in upon itself, sending it skidding through the docking port, and out in to the corridor within the mercenary ship's interior.

With sword and shield at her sides, Diana's golden wings spread out, and her eyees level upon the interior of the skunk ship ahead...

Kyle Rayner has posed:
Kyle is with Donna and he's still. Just quiet along the way really. Trying to listen to anything that could be useful. Then all of communications barrel forward. Scanners.

When talks of scans go out, Kyle has to fight to keep from scanning back. "I'll provide cover fire," he says going toward the airlock. He doesn't have the power up yet. Kyle knows his ring is recognizable in several places for different reasons. He wouldn't classify as "unarmed." So, he's willing to help someone go through the airlock if these pirates are able to somehow start boarding.

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
May as well not waste the travel time. "Yeah its step, hands up, left points and right on hip, step, step, fan yourself..." Just the newest dance trend!

Eventually, they reach their destination, which calls Diana back to duty, and Cassie too. Well, it calls Cassie to her seat, but... even if she doesn't have a signal, she can at least play some games. Well, the ones that aren't always online horrible live service gatcha fests, anyway...

So, by the time the ruse pays off, she has her feet up on the console, and is tap-tap swipe, beep-beep bloop'ing away on whatever game. It is not optimal combat readiness, perhaps, but space is very big, and there's really no telling how long this could go on for. Did they bring more snacks? As it turns out, they don't have to wait quite that long. And the ultimatum from the pirate vessel, when it suddenly appears, gives them plenty of time to prepare.

Well, a minute. How much time do they really need?

Soon, the two of them have assembled at the hatch, in their matching (well, thematically, if not in color...) armor. Diana gives it a big old kick, and there's a few metallic sounds as it bounces ahead. Cassie prowls inside as soon as they've breached, and given their stealth approach, they don't find initial resistance, with the bulk of the boarding party being on the other side of the ship.

But they do find a few very surprised pirate dudes! One of them, with a long, droopy gray-blue face turns and looks at them in surprise. Or maybe his face just always looks like that. Either way, Cassie doesn't give him a whole lot of time to figure things out: while Di has her sword and shield, Cassie has the shield and lasso, and lashes out with the latter, looping it around the surprised alien before delivering a crackling electric ZZZZZZOT!

That one falls down. But surely the others have noticed that they've gotten pincered, now?!

Kian has posed:
    The birdman nods once, satisfied.  "Photons are easy.  So that's a good thing, at least."  He looks for is a position of cover... although that's unlikely to be necessary once the big hitters move in and start monopolizing their attention.
    Technically speaking, Kian isn't really unarmed either, but blowing things up on spaceships is a really bad idea.
    What's a good idea is leaving the first pirate through the airlock with a completely depowered weapon.  Charge packs are a definite weak point, so far as Kian is concerned.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Resistance for Diana and Cassie is pretty thin at first. The stealthiness of the invisible jet had taken the pirates by surprise, but the breaching of their hull had not. Though they easily deal with the first few unaware pirates on their way into the ship, they are quickly followed by a dozen more pirates. If the pair of Amazons had expected wooden legs and eyepatches, they are disappointed; instead they are faced with aliens in rather smart black uniforms who seem to know exactly what they are doing. They advance down a corridor towards the pair quickly, quietly and professionally, moving from cover to cover as they close the distance rapidly, taking turns to send covering fire downrange as their fellows move. The laser weapons are tricky -- unlike bullets, the hit comes as soon as the trigger is pressed, which means bracer deflection relies on predicting where they are going to fire. There's perhaps half the reaction time to deflect a shot. On the plus side the lasers are tuned to a low enough power to not risk firing holes through the hull.

    On the other side of the ship, the pirate boarding party is negotiating the airlock. Donna gestures to Taras and Kyle to stay out of sight. "Let them come on board," she says. "Alura, you and I are the fastest, so once they're on our ship, the two of us run past and get on theirs before they can close the airlock. Kian, disable weapons and stay close to Kyle. The rest of you deal with the boarders, then follow us in. Nat's going to stealth it up while we go full assault. Disabling engines is number one priority, we don't want them to jump away with us on board. Then bridge."

    Like Cassie, Donna is going the shield and lasso route, and that's not something who hasn't met an Amazon is going to consider a weapon. With Kyle and Taras out of the way and Nat in her stealth suit, the pirates come into the ship, weapons raised by not looking too worried. As with Diana and Cassie over the other side of the ship, those receiving the boarders will note that they look very well organized and trained.

    Eight pirates come through the airlock, one after another, in a nice professional manner that Nat will probably approve of. They spread out, weapons at the ready. A ninth, with a handgun at his belt but holding no weapon, steps through after them. "We are taking this ship," he tells them. "We'll keep our word. If you want to board escape pods and leave, you may. However you will be searched for valuables first. Alternatively, we may have work for you in our fleet. You'll get fed, homed, and an opportunity for advancement if you show promise."

    "I don't think so," Donna replies. She bursts forwards, knocking the leader flying with a shoulder barge, and rushes into the corridor beyond!

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha takes the moment while the firefight is going on to slip her way past the first round of boarders, moving to head her way deeper into the ship. Anyone coming along immediately will hopefully be caught flat floated by the surprising advance, and that will have thier full attention. Then, she's going to jump up along and activate a pair of small anti-gravity thrusters in the armored chameleon suit she has on. Using them to glide herself along the upper edge of the corridor, floating past anyone along the way. Their priority target is information.
    The boarders are not gonig to be officers. They'll be the more aggressive members of the crew. She's not going to bother with pursuing higher ranking enemy personnel - she's far from the best for that after all. She glides along, heading towards what looks like an auxiliary access point for manual overrides in event of system failures.
    She goes in for a smooth landing, taking out an automated hacker. She's far from proficient over in the computer systems, so she can just insert it and slide it in. It would access the systems at the point, and then..
    Run into some serious trouble. The computer's network security is good. Very, very good. Far better if one had to ask her opinion than groups of pirates and privateers should have. If one had to ask her opinion, high end military grade (or whatever the equivalent descriptor was). So she can just leave it there to automatically hack and hope that it finds other ways to get into the system.. While she goes up along to floating and heading towards what is hopefully one of the command decks if she can make a best guess as to the layout.

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura watches the internal cameras and the attempts to get through the airlock. It won't take them long but they will realise quickly enough it's a trap. She flicks her fingers through the air and brings up a few menus. The bracer transforms suddenly and leaps up in to the air. It begins to spin, a crystal of light, as it hovers over her shoulder.

"Once we've established the breach head I'll head to their engine rooms," she says to Donna, "You head to the bridge. One of us will be successful at stopping a jump." A smile and a nod of approval to Donna's plan, she turns and strides forward; the glowing spinning crystal moving along with her.

She stands at the ready as they work the airlock and as it springs forward she presses off the ship. The three ships, tethered, feel a sudden jolt as Superwoman's super leap applies an impossible physics force. The groans of their super structures cry out in every corridor and room.

As she whips past the shmick looking pirates her hand comes to rest on one of the large door pistons. As she begins to pull it free so their airlock cannot lock her glowing friend begins to shoot out diffuse electron streams in direct opposition to their laser weaponry, absorbing up the energy of their attacks.

Diana Prince has posed:
It is a second after Cassie zots the first pirate, that Diana sweeps in toward the other two. The first of the two, has his rifle instantly cut to shreds by Diana's sword, sending a shower of sparks splashing across the deck, and bulkheads of the corridor. her sword swings back up, delivering a powerful blow to the pirate's masked face. She casts him aside in to the starboard bulkhead, as the third pirate opens fire with his weapon. Bolts of laser gas strikes Wonder Woman's round shield, blossoming in to sparks that shower across the Princess, who lunges toward the man, a dashing shield blow, ramming him against the bulkhead, and applying enough pressure to hear bones crunching, as their eyes meet each other, Diana's nose mere inches away from the purple skinned alien's own.

This is when the dozen new pirates arrive, and open fire!

Diana pulls her shield back from the third pirate, allowing his body to crumple against the deck, as she spins around, her golden wings curling inward to protect the Princess inside a gleaming cocoon of Themysciran precious metals!

The barrage of weapons fire light up the glimmering wings, creating a veritable waterfall of sparks, and a light show of brilliant bright blasts that illuminate the corridor, and cast strange shadows across its interior.

When the first second of a break in weapons fire comes, Diana's wings spread out, revealing the Princess within them, as she lunges forward, dropping sword and shield, and slamming her bracers together!

The pirate ship will shake from bow to stern, as a kinetic blast of energy is sent through the corridor toward the firing line of angry pirates, bulling straight in to them with a blurred gust of Aegis power!

The resulting blast leaves most of the lights broken down the corridor, and many of the bulkhead plates ripped open, causing parts of the ship's internal systems to fall upon the corridor floor, as well as no small amount of steam piping being broken open, spreading puffy white clouds across the floor.

Diana rises up, weapons back in hand, her eyes going to Cassie as she starts to walk forward, her golden wings clattering against the bulkhead corridor pylons as she moves.

"You get the next wave." Diana tells Cassie.

Kyle Rayner has posed:
Kyle looks back to Donna. It's clear she has a plan, "On it," he complies. He'll slip to doorway on the ship and try to hide behind it. Time ticks by at a painfully slow pace. One set of feet barrel through, another, then another an they continue. Trying his hard to just keep quiet, Kyle waits for the signal.

He knows it'll be like art, something most people can't explain. they just know what art is when they see it. In this case, hear it, really. And that's when the "I don't think so!" comes forward.

Kyle hears others move in. That's when he'll move forward just forming a construct that looks like a mace with rounded off spikes. something meant to bash and break things.

He'll bring that down upon anyone trying to get up. And he'll focus at anyone that may be ahead. He's trying to follow Donna.

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
Cassie, likewise, relies on the shield and full fancy shmancy armor over her bracers alone, as they face the squad moving down the hallway. That's why you wear this stuff, right? Anti pew-pew! Also, the last time she tried deflecting a fancy space weapon she ended up unconscious and naked on some satellite around Jupiter. Granted, that was a ship scale weapon, but it still sucked pretty hard and taught her a healthy respect for space nonsense.

And the cyborg Nazis on the moon mostly used normal guns. Well not the big one, but still.

Anyway! Point is that she's not going for flash or style points here. Overwhelming force is the ticket, just crush these pirate dorks and get back to her video games. And indeed, Diana is more than a match for them all on her own, so in her estimation the two of them makes it downright unfair, even against a dozen.

Evidence of this fact? Well... How about THAT?!

Rather than making it sporting, Diana just shockwaves them all into the next sector. And Cassie, all hunched and ready to move forward in whatever fancy blitz of elite Amazon tag-team maneuvering, instead just looks at her and rooooooolls her eyes. "Ok now you're just showing off. AND breaking the ship extra. If you're gonna showboat things, at least warn me so I can film it!"

Kian has posed:
    If nothing else, Kian is good at following directions, and stays close behind Kyle.  It doesn't do a whole lot towards fulfilling his assignment to learn Earth fighting, but messing with power systems is something he's comfortable doing.
    "I can try interfering with ship systems, but I don't know which ones are important, like life support," he offers, not very hopefully.  "I -- whoa!"
    Funny thing about being able to manipulate electromagnetic radiation: one of the pirates simply charges Kian... and Kian generates a very bright flashing light in his face and flits into the air, allowing momentum to carry the attacker nose-first into a bulkhead.  The birdman's conscience is clear, he never touched him.
    Kian is beginning to appreciate technicalities.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna nods her head in ready agreement with Alura, and heads towards the front of the ship, gesturing Kyle along with her. They don't know the exact layout of the ship so it's possible Alura will end up in the bridge or Donna and Kyle at the engines first, but it's the right approximate direction, and everyone's experienced enough by now to be able to improvise.

    Most of the pirates in the boarding party turn to start firing at Alura and Donna, but they're surprised by the speed the pair have moved with, and the shots are wild. Kyle knocks a bunch of them down on the way past with his construct mace, and Kian another as the pair prepare to follow. Taras pulls out a gun that makes two of the guards vanish, and is immediately targeted by multiple lasers. Caitlin uses the moment to pick up her hammer that she'd left leaning against the wall and swings it in a wide arc. The path is clear for Kian and Kyle, and while Caitlin finishes off the survivors of the boarding party, Taras sprints into the ship, following Alura in the direction of the engine room.

    Diana's shockwave has cleared the corridor and gained the two Amazons in the counter-boarding party time, but there are reinforcements on their way. Again they advance cautiously, but this time they have an added advantage. The lead pirate is pushing a large wheeled device that is projecting a field of glowing blue hexagons in the air in front of them as they progress -- clearly some kind of shield. Every now and then one of the pirates fires a gun towards the two Amazons, a hexagon of the force field opening up momentarily to allow the beam to pass. It's obvious from the blast marks appearing in the walls that the pirates weapons have been set to a higher power!

    Nat's frustration with the computer systems is compounded by a new frustration as a laser bolt hits the wall right beside her. Although she had so far been able to slip through unnoticed to find a quiet corridor to try her hack from, she has apparently now been detected! A trio of pirates is advancing slowly down the corridor in her direction, one of them holding up some kind of scanner device and directing the other two to shoot. Apparently they can't tell exactly where she is, but they have some kind of reading on her. Natasha's initial assumption of cobbled-together tech is proving a rather inaccurate one. Uniforms, standardized gear, specialist equipment to deal with different situations -- this is feeling to her very much more like going up against a trained military force than a bunch of pirates!

    "Engine room this way," Taras tells Alura, running down a corridor. Perhaps the taciturn space knight is familiar with this model of ship? The direction he has headed leads down a long passageway, and there are pirates already taking up guard positions in doorways leading the whole way down to a large bulkhead door at the end. Laser bolts sizzle towards Taras, scorching the body armor that had already looked rather damaged before he showed up on Earth, and he presses his back to a wall to present as small a target as possible while returning fire.

    Donna, Kyle and Kian find themselves moving through corridors that seem less well guarded until they turn a corridor and run into a barrage of heavy fire. A bolt of red energy scorches Donna's shield, leaving it glowing faintly red, and she backs up rapidly, gesturing to the other two to hold up around the corner. "There's some kind of heavy weapon ahead," she tells the pair of them. "An automated turret. A whole crowd of them just behind it, too. Kian, can you make it blow up?"

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura follows after Taras and yanks him back when the higher power energy bolts start peppering down the hallway. "Stay behind me," she instructs, pauses, then looks at his weapon, "And don't vapourise anyone else. There's no need to kill these people."

She looks at him with a troubled expression, then steps out in to the hall way with her hands on her hips. The blasts pepper against her. Flashes of light and riotous sound filled with fury and vigor hit her. After a moment the organised pirates stop firing to see if anything is left standing.

Much to their surprise Alura is still standing there. She strides down to them and shakes her head, "This isn't the way we make friends. We've clearly gotten off on the wrong foot. Let me help-" she says and takes their weapons in hand - *crunch* - and crushes them in to useless lumps of broken technology.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
They're dealing with an organized military unit. Not a mob. Even combat veterans that ran a disciplined crew would have some level of mismatch to them. Weapons were what they could steal and rebuild, even with good maintenance nothing would be uniform. With pirates and privateers it was a point of pride and a show of individuality. That created an espirit de corps amongst the freebooters. And the fact they had rather good technology was an even better sign of it. Network-wise ships made from whatever scraps could be stolen and parts refurbished had to have a very open netowrk.
    So they could make any parts work along the primary control network with the understanding they might have things from entirely differentt echnological bases and completely different languages and networks that couldn't literally 'speak' to one another. So the security, the military.. They were dealing with some group's intel wetworks.
    And technology that could break Nadia's was something even worse. Natasha goes to whip up her railgun, and goes to dive over to the side. She goes to a quick twirl and tumble,and leaps.. And as she sommersaults, rather than activating the hoverjets in her armor, instead she goes toactivate the magnetic clamps in her 'boots'. This has her land hard over on the side wall of the corridor,and she goes for several quick shots. The railgun capacitor is charged,glowing blue.. And then is going to fire projectiles at hypersonic velocity, thin darts with tips a few molecules sharp that hopefully would be quite efficient at going through armor. She doesn't have the time to take precise shots so she just aims for centers of torso. If they have energy fields built into the armor all she can hope is that they're designed for more standard kinetic or energy rounds rather than darts shot at around Mach 70 or so.

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
OK, so now they brought out the shield cart. That seems unwieldy and terribly impractical in any number of situations, but who is Cassie to criticize space pirate design principles? She glances over at Diana.

Diana, while not LITERALLY pulling out her phone and looking bored, gives her a look that suggests she wasn't kidding about trading off. Which earns a very angst-laden: "Ughhh. Fiiiiiiine."

Hmm, OK, how to fight this nonsense.

She hefts her shield, moves forward in a quick darting rush, and then crouches down in the shadow of the shield as the gun pops out and they open fire. The shield can take it: Amazon gear is pretty close to indestructible. But the armor isn't quite as good, having weak spots as a necessity of, well, not being fully encased in solid metal and being able to move at all. Cassie repeats this pattern a couple times, rushing up in quick motions and then crouching in her self-made cover as soon as they open the shield to fire, saturating her with a laser barrage each time. The shield holds.

But it's starting to get hot. "Huh. Today I learned..."

Maybe it will hold all the way, maybe not. Maybe it will melt. Maybe it will burn her arm off. Who knows. Cassie isn't gonna play guessing games with space nonsense. She repeats her movement pattern again, but this time, it's a fake out, just getting them used to her tempo and waiting for them to open their shield to fire.

Lasso? Nah. Magic it is, but a physical toss is still kinda slow. They might react. No, she does... what she decided she wasn't doing earlier, since none of them have seen the trick. They prepare to fire, she moves the shield aside...

...and snaps her wrist into place just as they fire. And just as they've had time to study her movement, she's been studying their aim, so she has the angle all planned out, to send the beam right back at the source.

Shield cart go boom.

That takes out a few of the guys, not all of them of course, but it does leave them all a great deal more vulnerable. "C'mon, I did the hard part," she chides Di, before zip-rushing ahead to clear up the remainder in some more cathartic hand-to-hand. WHAM! POW!

Kian has posed:
    "I am not at all sure blowing things up inside a spaceship is a good idea," Kian says, "especially with the power in that system.  But I can disable it."
    So there isn't a loud bang.
    There's a small pop.
    The loud bang will come when they try to fire it.
    And there's a residual static charge that the first person to touch it won't enjoy much.
    And then he concentrates on draining more hand weapons.

Diana Prince has posed:
As Cassie dashes forward, Diana does not simply watch her protege in idle. In fact, there are other access corridors that branch off of this one, and this is what the Princess is monitoring just in case some backup forces were to rush them from different angles. She slashes her sword across what she perceives to be monitoring cameras, and strides onward toward Cassie, just in time to see the other find that shield timing weakness, and exploit it.

When the close quarters combat begins, as Cassie gets low, and goes left, Diana sweeps in high, on the right, her golden wings striking the wide corridor pylons, Wonder Woman flying through the air, to arch her path down toward the remaining pair of enemies on the right side of the corridor. One is delivered a high kick from a heeled boot, right to his throat, sending him tumbling backward, while the other blasts at Diana's armored form, the right wing darting down to cover Diana's shoulder, before she pivots on her heeled boots, and smacks the man's carbine aside, before jumping right in to him, with her left leg up, kneeing him directly in his chin!

When the two Amazonians clear the hallway, Diana begins to move forward, using her advanced senses to detect where the others are.

"This way." She says over her shoulder toward Cassie, directing her to where she can 'hear' the other team operating within the bulk ship.

Donna Troy has posed:
    The problem with Natasha realizing that this is a serious military unit she's dealing with rather than than a bunch of ill-disciplined and poorly equipped pirates is that Natasha is the flarking Black Widow. TThe problem for the pirates, that is.

    They are well trained, well-disciplined and well-equipped. They are however simply not prepared for Natasha flipping around the corridor like some kind of human pinball, and they are certainly not prepared to have someone standing on the wall and shooting at them. They're good, but not that good. The two who had been firing go down. The third, wearing a smarter-looking uniform than the other two and thus presumably some kind of officer, takes a few steps back, drops his scanner and throws up his arms. It's hard to know if this type of alien is naturally that tone, but he looks pale. Come to think of it, there's surprisingly little variety in species in this crew. There's some variety for sure, but the large majority of the soldiers have been the same blue-skinned type.

    "I surrender! I am unarmed!" the officer tells Natasha, just as the lights throughout the ship turn red, and sirens blare.

    Taras gives Alura an unreadable expression. If he's not actually a robot he's in some kind of full body armor and there's not a whole lot of expressiveness in that face plate, but his voice and body language seem equally unmoved. He raises his gun and vanishes a few more soldiers. "Nobody is being vaporized," he tells her. "Merely captured. This is not a gun, it is a teleportation device. I am a Spaceknight of Galador. We are honorable." He marches up to the bulkhead door, stares at it for a few moments, then taps in a code. The door opens, and the engine room is beyond.

    Donna tests Kian's prophecy by holding her shield out around the corner. There's a boom, and a few pieces of metal bounce off her shield. She draws her shield back and peers very quickly around the corner, before jerking her head back. She looks again, taking longer this time. "They've gone," she tells Kian and Kyle with some surprise, and steps around the corner. Sure enough, the corridor behind the ruins of the automatic turret is empty of people. Perhaps that alarm sound and all the red lights are an abandon ship message?

    Sure enough, Caitlin's voice comes through on coms to confirm exactly that. <<Escape pods,>> Caitlin says. <<Lots of them. Donna, should I...>>

    <<Let them go,>> Donna responds. <<There are plenty of them still lying around>>

    Donna, Kyle and Kian proceed down the corridor, and sure enough Diana's sharp hearing has guided herself and Cassie the right way, because the two parties soon see each other at either end of a corridor. In the middle is a door that should, if estimations are correct, lead to the ship's bridge. "What kept you?" Donna asks her sisters with a grin. It's entirely unreasonable, as the two groups arrived at basically exactly the same time. Donna aims a kick at the door to the bridge, sending it flying inside, and runs in shield first before coming to a sudden halt. The bridge is empty.

    In the engineering section, Taras and Alura find the place equally empty. There are sparks coming from some of the banks of equipment, which has clearly been sabotaged. A monitor on the wall shows a pair of symbols in large glowing glyphs. The second of the two glyphs changes. And then changes again. "I believe we should evacuate the ship," Taras tells Alura. "Promptly."

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura nods approvingly to Taras as he explains his choice of 'weaponry', "An elegant solution." She steps in to the engine room and is quite prepared to try and understand the alien design and systems. However it becomes clear very quickly that that won't be necessary.

"I concur," she states and then brings up her comms, << "Everyone evacuate immediately. A self destruct has been activated." >>

Her hovering friend rejoins her arm and becomes a bracer once more. A pulse is sent out to map parts of the ship and their life signs, << "Make sure you grab all the unconscious ones on your way." >>

She offers her arm to Taras, "Hold on tight and we'll be out of here in the blink of the eye." True to her word once she has him in her grasp she uses her super speed to navigate back on board the trojan horse. Once onboard she begins tapping furiously at her holographic interface, "I believe I can extend the shield projection from my ship over this ship."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
The alien has surrnedered to her, and Natasha Romanova goes to speak in primary Shi'Ar <<Surrender accepted>> Then she goes to slam her Widow's Bites out,intent on blasting the alien unconscious over to render them dropped hard. The individual might have surrendered but she had no reason to respect that it would hold as soon as her back was turned, and she was in no position to fully secure them or handle prisoners. So heavy pulses of electricity shot into him (hopefully enough to keep them down) and then a quick jab of a restraint harness over them to hopefully hold them down. Grabbing what equipment they had (including what she thought at least was the portable scanner) to take along with her.
    <<Status update. Officer unconscious>> Efficient. Don't use more words than you have to. Requesting an update of the rest ofthe operation as well as her tasking orders as she would hear the alert called out to evacuate. Mentally calculating the distance to their own ship and to the escape pods, moving to grab the stunned officer to throw them over her back. Deferring to the Amazons now in charge of the attack. Gonig to take quick strides along, she moves to put the railgun on her bcak and then reenages the cloaking system after a quick system reset, blending into the coloration of the ship corridor and letting the stealth buffer kick in. It wouldn't work as well with the captive, but it was hopefully enough to make it just a little harder fo rsomeone to take a potshot ather whileshe was withdrawing.

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
This way, says a Diana, and that way, goes a Cassie! It's faster covering ground when you're not fighting through tons of pirate dorks. Indeed, she lifts up to fly down the corridoor rather than running. Lazy!

They make it to the bridge just in time to link up with Donna, and... just in time to discover the weird symbols changing in an ominously consistent rhythm. "Yeah, I don't have to learn... whatever these people speak to figure out what THAT says. I've seen it plenty of times on Space Trek."

Well, there's not much to do then but run. Or, well, fly! This time, it's definitely not for laziness's sake. Hopping upward, she does a quarter somersault in the air to get horizontal, and then kicks off the bridge entry bulkhead, pushing herself back down the corridoor they came up on. "Hey, Disk?" she shouts into the communicator that is conveniently part of her armor, adressing the Jet's AI. "Prep launch, seal us in and full acceleration once we're on board."

And then? Then she zooms!

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana dropped out of the air when they got within a few paces of the bridge entrance. She smirked from within her helmet toward Donna's comment and question. "We ran in to some old friends." She responds in a classical answer to such a question.

With the others, the golden clad Wonder Woman swept herself in to the bridge, and moved around to the middle of it. She was taking a gander out of the forward viewports when the ominous realization was announced. "We have done all we can here then." She affirms, "Let us go. If you see any alive, bring them with us. We will find a place to leave them..."

Not but a moment after her counterpart zips out of the bridge, Diana is jogging after her, and once more taking flight. The lights in the ceiling of the corridor shine down upon the golden armored form of Diana, as she operates within the fairly closed quarters, her wings brushing the edges of the corridor as she goes.

Back in the original corridor, Diana is quick to note the breathing, and living, forms strewn on the ground. She grabs two of them, as she nudges another with a foot. "Come with us." She orders them, pushing them to their feet and dragging two others with her.

Soon, Diana and a group of the pirates are rushing aboard the Invisible Jet...

"We are ready, let us go."

Kian has posed:
    "I was really hoping no one would touch that thing until we were away from it."  Kian looks around sharply at the lights and noises -- and kicks into the air, grabbing any one unconscious pirate that's small enough to carry, heading back to their ship at best possible speed.
    "Uh, how do we keep their ship from taking us with it when it explodes?" he asks upon depositing his passenger somewhere safe.  "That would be a bad way to end this mission if we didn't."

Donna Troy has posed:
    <<We read Alura>>, Donna replies. <<Black Widow, bring that captured officer with you. Just what we need.>>

    This is a situation where having a Green Lantern on the team really pays off. Though the pirates have carried the wounded away with them where possible, there are still a few scattered around the corridors too wounded or unconscious to make it to an escape pod. Kyle summons up a green construct in the shape of a giant dust-pan that he scoops along the corridor ahead of the group. There's even a floating green brush that brushes the occasional straggler out of doorways and side corridors, and into the pan.

    Taras gives Alura a long look and shakes his head. "I can read the digits," he says. "We have enough time." There's an odd cadence to the previously so-stoical voice. Is the Spaceknight actually /embarrassed/ about the concept of being carried to safety? Very probably! He does however justify the slower approach by zapping a few prone pirates on the way with his teleporter-gun-thing, sending them to the safety of wherever the teleportation sends them.

    Well unless he's less honorable than he claims and is actually disintegrating them!

    Cassie and Diana make it back to the Invisible Jet quickly, with a small group of unconscious pirates with them. Alura and Taras are first back to the Trojan Horse ship, soon followed by Kian. Caitlin's at the airlock, waving people through and urging them to hurry. The engines are humming, ready to go, and she's obviously keen to get started!

    Last on board are Donna and Kyle, Kyle's dust-pan turning into a green cage once it's through the airlock. As soon as they are through Donna sets the airlock cycling, and Caitlin runs to the pilot seat to start the ship moving. The Lansinarian disk peels away from one side of the abandoned pirate ship, while the more lumbering Trojan Horse ship slips away more slowly. It has only moved a couple of hundred feet from the pirate vessel when the cockpit lights up with a brilliant white glow as the fusion drive erupts into a ball of pure whiteness, contained within the force-shield of Alura's Kryptonian scout ship, a miniature sun that glows bright and burns itself out over the course of a couple of minutes.

    "Let's get out of here before reinforcements arrive," Donna suggests.

    The trip home is a little more interesting than the trip here, if only because there are pirates to question. Or are there? The officer Natasha had recovered, once he is awake, quickly starts making demands to ensure the correct treatment of his men as prisoners of war. They are after all, he explains, soldiers of the Imperial Navy of the planet Adnoth.

    What exactly is going on here?