17456/The Patron of the Hegemony

The Patron of the Hegemony
Date of Scene:	24 March 2024
Location:	Hyperspace
Synopsis:	The mystery of how the Hegemony has such technological superiority is revealed. They are cheating. Their emperor is none other than Vohc, the Kryptonian god of Building. This battle just got a whole lot harder.
Cast of Characters:	Alura In-Ze, Clark Kent, Monet St. Croix, Karen Starr, Minoke, Kenesha, Conner Kent

---

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura has been testing her phantom drive on the Kryptonian Scout Ship. It has worked remarkably well for something she hobbled together in an emergency. So much so it was time to put it to use. There's been a growing problem in the galaxy - the Kryptonian Hegemony.

The Hegemony comes from an alternate timeline in which Krypton was not destroyed. At a younger age they were alerted to attempted genocide by the Oans and this sent their society down a very dark path. The Hegemony conquered and ruled across most of the galaxy before their timeline was ended.

Somehow they made a leap in technology that allowed them to escape their dying timeline and invade ours. But just how many of them and how advanced they are we still do not know.

"The plan is simple," Alura says to their assembled friends and allies, "Since the Hegemony cannot detect the phantom drive - we're going to sidle on up to one of their big warships and see what we can learn. Perhaps follow it to where-ever it's going. The more we know about them the better equiped we will be to stop them."

Clark Kent has posed:
Clark Kent aka Superman aka Kal El was on the scout ship. He had been pacing back and forth, waiting, and watching, with his hands behind his back, trying not to look too nervous. Stopping to listen to Alura, he relaxes and nods, being there for everyone as best he could considering the situation.

"Agreed Alura. Once more unto the breech indeed." Superman looks at everyone present, his smile true and not forced. "We'll get through this together. I am proud to be a part of this team."

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix is currently settled back over in her seat, "Do we know if they've been able to gather exposure to solar radiation?" Have they managed to find the right wavelength of sun that empowers them so greatly? She's seen the vast technological abilities that the Hegemony has. So far their ability to fight has relied upon coordination and a great deal of luck if they're detected. She has her hands over on her lap and looks thoughtful.

"And has anyone figured out a way to break into their computer systems? Or through their encryption?" That's the best way for them to get a great deal of data quickly.

Karen Starr has posed:
Power Girl...Kara Zor-L, is here to do whatever she can. She knows something of Kryptonian science, but not so much as Alura, so she'll happily take the back seat there. "We can give it a shot. Thankfully the language shouldn't be a barrier, so it comes down to what we can employ on brute-force attacks." On the computers, people.

Minoke has posed:
Minoke isn't really sure what's going on, or know what a Hegemony is, but her talents for metal-shaping and being a living computer of one of the most technologically advanced civilizations in the galaxy... she ended up on this ship, brought by Superman himself. She is sitting in the corner, fiddling with some gold jewelry like a bored child, but looks up at the team. "I... might be able to help with the computer stuff..." she murmurs shyly. Minoke definitely looks out of place on the mission - she looks like she's from Brainiac's homeworld with the similar green skin and the third eye. (Well, she is.) She then wanders over to one of the computer consoles. "You said the bad guys are... Kryptonian? I can learn from this vessel's computer and try to learn how to manage it?" She looks down at it, not wanting to touch it yet, still fiddling with those golden earrings.

Kenesha has posed:
"I believe that's where I can help," Kenesha offers towards Monet with a smile. Looking to Alura, she adds, "My peoples' technology is based off of ancient Kryptonian technology. Evolved, obviously, through the millenia. But similar enough at it's base that I should be able to crack their system. The only issue would be ensuring that I could connect to an appropriate terminal and have the time to run decryption." She glances between the three Kryptonians, "I can't go toe to toe with them as you can, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve to help even the odds if needed."

Conner Kent has posed:
Conner has, again, volunteered to go to fight the 'space fascists' because evil Kryptonians are quite frankly a menace for the Earth, New Krypton and the whole galaxy. However, now they have found out they are survivors of a dying timeline, things are not so black and white. People are people, even if they are stupid and wrong.

"Well, I want to help, but what did we learn from the ship we took down last time?" He asks. Since the prisoner was such a formidable fighter, and had a pretty impressive warship.

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura smiles and places a hand on Clark's shoulders. "This'll be the 7th time I've gone near them. They are totally blind to this new technology. I have a theory that all their technological development was so focused on war that it has all but ceased for anything but weaponry and shields. Victims of their own success they might be powerful but they are not creative."

A quick not to Monet, "Yes M. We recovered several sunbelts from them. They cracked that mystery long before we even thought it was something we needed to figure out. As for their computers - still no luck. Every attempt has resulted in a highly sophisticated counter hack. Weapons of war and all that. I hold hope we will find a way, some way, any way, to beat them back." She pauses and looks to Minoke and Kenesha. Perhaps the two together... Clearly of artificial construction she nods slowly, "It is worth a try - but not if it means you get harmed by their systems. Please be careful."

Alura In-Ze, aka Superwoman, aka Supermom :P takes a seat on the captains chair. Holographic kryptonian systems float up around her and she motions with her hand through it. "Let's go- Taking us back to where I last saw one of their bigger ships."

The ship jumps in to the edge between reality and the phantom zone. It's a strange edge and it makes everyone in the ship feel a little queasy. The phantom zone has that affect. The travel is swift, far faster than a jump window or a warp drive. They catch up with a gigantic ship shaped much like a flying weapon. They catch up with it in warp.

Alura shifts her hand slightly and the scout ship comes up along side the giant vessel. The visuals for those with super vision are amazing - the warp stream around them, the edge of the phantom zone. But the ship? it's coated in thick constructed materials and virtually impossible to see through. Though may be Conner can get a look inside.

She replies to Conner, "It destroyed itself when we took out their captain. How it knew I'm not sure - whether AI or life signs detector. Our prisoner has been very tight lipped about it all. I hope we can show him we are 'stronger' than the Hegemony. They might persuade him to switch allegiances and tell us what we need to know."

A starmap opens up with their trajectory, "Hm. There's nothing where they're going. What could they be after out here?"

Karen Starr has posed:
    "Maybe it's something cloaked?" Power Girl suggests. "They wouldn't be out here for nothing. Is there anything on sensors?" She assumes there's nothing to their enhanced vision, of course.

Clark Kent has posed:
Hearing everyone chime in, and appreciating the enthusiasm, Superman smiles and steps back, letting the team come up with ideas and solutions to their main problem. The Hegemony. Moving to stand near Alura, he defers to her leadership in this mission as she knows more than he ever could with what they were up against, as she places a hand on his shoulder, a welcome touch.

His eyes go to each one of them. Alura with a subtle nod of support.

Monet, a smile, and a "A lot of questions. Most are, we don't know."

PG, "Good to have you here. Thank you."

Minoke, a smile. "I am glad to have you here to help! Especially with the "computer stuff". Monet?" A pause. His eyes find..."Kenesha? Can you all work on that? And thanks for joining us on this mission!"

"Good question Conner. A lot." A pause. "Enough to give us an edge."

Everything he says only supports what Alura has said already. Then, as she sits in the Captain's Chair, Superman gets ready. "Here we go."%

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix would fold her hands together. "So far I've not had luck telepathically probing any of them.. However, if they're rendered unconscious I might do better. So far they've had some means of technologically shielding themselves. If we can find one and discover how they do this quickly, we might have better luck as well in the future." She's only a moderately capable telepath. If the Martian Manhunter was with them, they would have no problem.

"I can also try to keep us connected together telepathically, but I cannot guarantee it's effectiveness over within the ship, particularly if they have jamming." She goes to glance out the viewport at the empty space that they're coming alongside. Even with everything she has done with the Kryptonians, with everything she has seen from her time with the X-Men.. Space is still a mystery for her. She would go to pause in her seat, and goes to hold herself a little more tightly to it.

THen she goes to stretch out her mind over and goes to try and scan along. It's a great distance, but she's had experience with the Hegemony and with Kryptonian minds. She doesn't have to be able to read thier minds.. Just sense them. And surely they can't have bothered to make their entire ship capable of blocking telepathy.. She goes to try and scan out into space, her eyes closed, and moves to try and do what she can to just try and trace minds. Her hand goes up in front of her as if trying to use it as a guide for where she was trying to scry for. It's somewhat up in the air, but if she can pick out any sort of cluster of minds..

Minoke has posed:
Minoke doens't seem to be affected by the phantom drive - not being biological does give her one perk as she stares at the ship. "Hmmmm... it's made of the same material as this vessel..." she muses. "Sunstone, it's called? Hmmmmm. It's... ummmm..." She hesitates. "I haven't had a chance to work with it, but I can sense a decent amount of metal in the composite. If I could land on the vessel I might be able to create a breach but... it'd be slow..." She finall puts the earrings on her ears, trying to focus on the task at hand. She glances at Monet. "I don't know if I can be connected telepathically... it would be a novel experience if I could..." The nanocolony droid still seems a bit confused, but is tring her best.

Conner Kent has posed:
"I wish we could convince some of them our way is better," but frankly, they survived the Oans, while Krypton here was destroyed by genocidal blue gnomes. This time the Els don't have the best arguments.

He offers a smile to the new folks that have joined them in this difficult task, Kenesha and Minoke, and then glances at Alura again. "You know, I know a telepath or three," he looks at Monet. "And I am sure Kal knows many more. It might be a good idea to just pull that information out of his head by force, even using magic if possible. I know it is not ethical, but a lot of people die if they attack planets. They are just too powerful and merciless."

Kenesha has posed:
Flashing a quick grin at Superman, she tips her hat and nods, "Advanced alien tech is sorta my jam. It'd be easier if I had my ship along, but I get the need for stealth. I'm sure between myself and our friend here," she nods to Minoke, "we can launch enough of an attack against their system to get through."

Looking back to Minoke, she grins, "You don't have to breach the hull to get inside. That part I know I can help with. If nothing else, I can teleport people into the ship. Just.. without seeing inside, I can't guaratee there won't be people in whatever room I take us to."

Mention of the sunstone has her looking to Alura, "Is their technology still techno-organic? Crystalline-based? Not a problem if it isn't, but it will be easier to sync up my tech to theirs if it is. Might save us a minute or two." She flashes a quick smile to Conner and dips a nod. She doesn't do telepathy herself, so she stays out of that particular argument.

Karen Starr has posed:
Power Girl nods as Conner comments. "I'm with Conner on this. It's regrettable...but we can't rely on overpowering them here. Telepathy is an edge they shouldn't have, and shouldn't be able to counter, so far as we know. We need to know what they do, and questioning them hasn't really worked yet." She considers. "Has anyone been able to confirm if Kryptonite has any effect on them?"

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura nods her head to Karen, "Could be." She looks contemplative about that for a moment. "They've not engaged the Green Lanterns yet as far as I know but that confrontation can't be too far away. Given their recent losses it might not go the way we'd want it."

Alura looks to Minoke, "This ship is from their timeline. It's a timeloop duplicate of the one my twin sister Astra stole from them. She made a time machine and - well that's how this whole mess started. She went back in time to try and save Krypton from destruction. Successful, yes, but she created a monster. And now we have to deal with the consequences."

A small sigh, "I don't understand where their compassion went." A slightly sad look to Conner, "But they are used to being on top and won't accept anything but that. They are so supremely confident in their success because they've achieved it before."

She peers at Minoke again at the idea of using a colony of nanotech to pry open a way through the sunstone. Her mind begins to wander at the subquantum computations that might be necessary to do that when suddenly their ship drops out of quantumdrive warp.

Errors flash up and an alarm bell rings out as they start to spin on the spot. The warship they were beside comes to a stop next to them -- they have arrived at their destination.

Before them is a gigantic crystalline star glowing brightly with the energy of a thousand suns. Monet can instantly feel the vague distant minds - only two on the war ship but thousands on the snow-flake like designed space station.

A beam lances out and catches their ship. "Oh no..." Alura says and stands up. "How did they detect us.. how did they knock us out of our warp." There's a look of impossibility on her face. How could they have technologically adapted so quickly to something she only made work properly a week ago.

Clark Kent has posed:
Superman stands back and lets everyone do their jobs. Each of them had a skillset that made the team even stronger. Standing near Alura he almost grins. "Great team. We'll get this done." His confidence was contagious. With a nod to Kenesha, Conner, Minoke, Monet, Karen, Superman knew it was better just to stay out of their way.

As the alarm bells sound, and they are hit by the beam, Superman says, "ALura. It happened. We need to adapt. Everyone, get ready. Remember to look after each other, and keep to the plan. We're in this together. No person left behind but we need to do this. The security of our world hangs in the balance. We can do this!"

Superman's eyes look at Alura, and the screen and then waits. "Here we go."

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix would grimace and quickly gesture out at the general direction of the station - or the massive cluster of minds from it. "There. Thousands." It might be a bit of a fakeout, but they can't have been expecting telepathy to setup something to give a false impression of that many minds. Not at that scale. And why bother setting up such a massive facility purely to trick their paltry few?

She takes a breath. "In their home timeline, are they on the same.. Speed of time? Or from the same moment?" It's complicated, but two possibilities are that if time is 'faster' for them or if they can make limited degrees of jumping from what passes in their 'future'.. Then they can take all the time they need to build up countermeasures and adapt. And M is bracing as they get ready to go on and engage.

"Try and locate an officer. If we can incapacitate them, I could possibly pull something from their mind. Search them quickly if you can for anything that might be security access. Their systems can't be all keyed to biological interface. They'll need to have some form of keypass or identification on them." Then again, with how alien their technology had been so far (by Earth standards) she could very well be completely wrong. She goes to get ready as Superman gives the instructions. Once more unto the breach.

Karen Starr has posed:
Power Girl's used to being the tip of the spear when it comes to a fight. But the one person she'd normally defer to is standing right here; Kal. She looks to him. "If they've got our same abilities, the ship may be the weak point in this equation. We can't afford to let anything happen to it in case we need to get out of here. Maybe someone should try and get it out of the area if this gets to a boarding action."

Minoke has posed:
Minoke nods as she moves towards Superman, glancing around. "Hey - by the way, are Kryptonians vulnerable to electricity?" she muses softly as she tries to sense if the scout ship's hull had breached - so far no. She hmmmmms softly, looking a bit uncertain but is trying to do her best.

Conner Kent has posed:
"The problem is they way worked pretty well for them," grumbles Conner. "I thought these kind of militaristic tyrannies are riddled with inefficiencies and corruption as they can't..." his train of thought gets derailed when the ship is forced out of cover.

Thousands? This might be the bulk of the Hegemony, then. And also the place where they have top-notch defenses. "Maybe this was not specifically for us, Alura. They might have some global defense against extra-dimensional intruders in that space station. I really hope they weren't specifically waiting for us. But hey, they might have precogs, or their own telepaths."

Which means, anyway, they have to fight. And probably they should go fight somewhere else not their own ship. "Say, can you teleport us... hmm, to the other ship, or the station?" He asks Kenesha.

Kenesha has posed:
There's a lift of her brows as they're snared in a beam alongside the warship. Kenesha looks to Alura, "I can get people onto the ship. We can start trying to get into their system. But something tells me if we're going to go, it has to be now. They know we're here, they're going to be be preparing for us. The more time they have to prepare, the more time it'll take to crack their tech."

She glances to Monet, then back to Alura. That's going to be good information to have, after all. If they operate on a different wavelength of time, that could potentially make things much more difficult.

Leaning in towards Minoke, she murmurs, "Not particularly. Kryptonians are extremely durable. You might pause one for a few seconds with a large enough shock, but we're talking like.. blackout New York City big to really do some damage."

Smiling wryly at Conner, she adds, "If it were just a political-military complex, there would likely be plenty of holes to poke at. The problem comes when you bring fanaticism into the mix. Fanatics take things to a whole new level, and can be surprisingly cunning, and efficient." Then she's giving a nod, "Sure. And I'm pretty sure they can't block my teleport. Magic, not tech." She taps the toe of one boot against the floor of the ship.

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura shakes her head to Minoke, "If you have to fight ... well, let's just say we should avoid fighting them. Their ships are better than ours. Their shields are better than ours. Their super powers are slightly worse than mine - which means we have Superman and Power Girl who can wipe the floor with them.... but did I just hear there are thousands of them?"

Things are spiralling out of control quickly. Clark gets her ear, "Adapt." Monet's whole theory about time variability she stuffs to the back of her mind to unpack later. They're in crisis. She reaches out a hand to start adjust their shielding when suddenly - there is a blinding light.

Minoke finds herself alone on the ship. The tractor beam is pulling it in to a docking bay.

The rest of the crew who registered as biological life signs find themselves in a grand crystalline room. Its ceiling is easily as tall as a skyscraper. Towering before them are statues of the Kryptonian gods and below the one in the middle is a throne.

Kryptonian warriors stand in a line along the length of the space wearing their glittering golden armor and menacing looks on their faces. And sitting upon that throne is not at Kryptonian at all but a green alien with four arms.

Beside him stands... Zod? Not their Zod certainly but -a- Zod. He's wearing black armor and motions to the teleported invaders, "Your prisoners, Emperor." And prisoners they are - they are surrounded by a blue light, a force field.

It takes Alura a moment to realise it - they've met him before - but that Emperor? .... that's the Kryptonian god of myth and legend Vohc, the builder. Things start to click in her mind. Their impossible technology to breach from one timeline to another. The way they have adapted their technology so quickly. Vohc claps his hands and smirks.

"You're all finally figuring it out aren't you. You can't win. You've been flailing about like a weak j'tok against a GOD." Vohc rises from his throne and walks confidently toward his captives. "Don't worry. It's almost over. I will have the local of your world in mere moments. Then my fleet will wipe it away like a hand swatting a fly."

Back on the ship Minoke can see the computers suddenly light up - the alien Kryptonian language begins to pour over the screens. The scout ship is being hacked.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix would go to clench her fists as the group is surrounded over by so many hostiles. Far more than they can fight thier way out of. Far more than they can trick their way outof. All she can do is brace herself and try and wait for an opening. No attempts when it comes to reading minds or picking things up. In a sea of so many, she would just get overloaded or lost. Or even knowing which one to go after. Who is a leader, who is a soldier. All she can do is brace and wait for an opening and try to see if she can support the others.

But she has seen gods. She has fought gods. This is just one more over to the list. But she does not announce it. She does not open with it as a challenge. Not when hte group is completely vulnerable and in a crossfire position. Now,s he clenches her fists and waits, staying mostly still and hovering amongst the hundreds, thousands that have them all completely surrounded.

Clark Kent has posed:
Superman's eyes go to Power Girl's and he frowns. "That is true Kara. Karen." Clark nods. "They are as tough as we are, so it is going to be a tough fight. Our strength is the rest of our team and our unpredictable nature. We'll get it done."

"I am counting on you to do what needs to be done though cousin. I'll be the tip of the spear, you make sure everyone else gets out of here alive." Looking over at Conner. "Keep an eye on the kid." He grins.

Hearing Minoke, Superman pauses and looks over at her. "Yes. if the electricity is massive enough. We recover fast though. So be ready."

Looking at Kenesha, "We're counting on you to be our tactical saviour, Kenesha. Good to have you aboard. Remember...I am last. Get everyone else out, and I will make sure you get away safely." His voice was firm on that matter. "Thank you."

Seeing the line of Kryptonian warriors and then the green alien, Clark pauses. "Vohc. Darnit." Okay. Superman ALMOST curses. Almost. A sideways look at Alura. Then a firm look on his face. "Well. We are all in. Who has the ace up their sleeve, because we are at the end game." Alura knows that look.

Superman sighs. Takes a deep breath, and unleashes himself on the army in front of him, ready to sacrifice it all for the mission and the lives of his team. "Go Go Go!" Now, chaos was their ally. Surprise.

Through it all, Superman TRUSTS his team to do their jobs, and get it done.

Minoke has posed:
Minoke suddenly experiences a bright flash... and... she's alone. Everyone else was gone. Apparently she wasn't recognized as a life-form. Whatever, she can deal with it. She moves to the computer console, wondering what hse can do, when her eyes widen as she sees that Kryptonian code. She knows the written Kryptonian language - Brainiac's assaults on Krypton and Kryptonians had the language in the Coluan database.

She decides to take action, as she jacks into the central console and fights back, her eyes glowing brightly as she does her best to get the intruding code out of the system. She hasn't had much practice to use this skill for Earth technology is FAR beneath her, but this is something at her level and she is simply working to keep them out - putting a very strong Coluan trinary firewall around all navigation data... and engineering. Alura said this engine was not known to these guys so she is standing her line and making sure they can't access engineering shcematics or navigation data. She focuses her first efforts on that - and will see about counterattacking once she knows the main secrets are safe.

Karen Starr has posed:
    Power Girl listens as Not-Zod speaks, and then looks over to Kal. "We're the only ones who have a chance here." And when he calls go, she launches herself at the right side of the room, cutting loose with heat vision at the figure on the throne. She isn't aiming to kill; that's not her MO. But she's also not holding back in the way that Kryptonians usually do either.

Conner Kent has posed:
"Ah, that is... that jerk we beat once," Conner recognizes Vohc from the previous time-related troubles. And smirks, whispering to Alura, "I was starting to think we were up against Astra again. At least he is not family."

And then Superman and Power Girl are attacking. And where is Minoke? Did they teleport her somewhere else? Or maybe missed her... that would be interesting, he better keep his mouth shut for now. Now, how many of the Kryptonians have those sun-belts? Those need to be disabled and his telekinesis is good for that.

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Vohc claps his four hands and dances on the spot as Karen blasts at the shielding with her heat vision. "Oooh spicy. I'm impressed. You must be the most powerful Kryptonian I've ever seen. What do they call you I wonder." He stands at the edge of the shielding with supreme confidence.

"It does not matter. I was there when Rao introduced Sunstone to your species. I was there when your species learnt to use it, to adapt to it, to bond with it. You cannot break free of my force field and you cannot defeat me."

He waggles a finger at them with one hand as another lower arm points to Superman. "You are right to fight back. That is the Hegemony way. Survival of the fittest and -my- people are the fittest."

Alura feels that seething rage inside of her. That stuff she always taught Kara to keep pressed down. She supposes alternate-her also taught Karen the same lessons. But it's hard to keep it in when you find out the big bad is CHEATING.

Zod frowns and says, "Emperor, they have some new kind of system on their ship that is stopping our intrusion attempts. Our engineers say it is adapting like the Brainiac virus."

Vohc turns around perturbed and stares daggers at Zod. "Impossible. There is nothing in this universe that can stop our systems."

Alura wonders... since Minoke isn't here, is it Minoke resisting them. "Vohc. Tell me. How is it you can use your godly knowledge to conquer a universe and the other gods of Krypton do nothing to stop you?"

He spins back around and smirks, "That's the best bit Alura In-Ze. They're gone. Poof. When you destroyed their gift of godhood to you - you ended Flamebird and Nightwing. Rao has not been seen for eons. I'm all there is and now I can create to my hearts content. And NO one will burn it down this time."

"Superman, Power Girl," Alura says, "Preserve your strength. This is not the end. He can't find our world - not with our," she begins to lie, "own god of computing aiding us. The new gods who have decided to help us against the Hegemony."

Vohc looks incredulous for a moment, then inquisitive, "New gods?"

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Now is not the best time to attack when all attention is on them and they're surrounded. But they just need a few moments of distraction.. Monet glances up at the surrounding fascists of the Hegemony. Remembering well she can't read their minds. She's a moderately capable telepath and they can't have trained every single member to resist telepathy to such a degree or put in mental shields in all of them. That means something external..

She thinks of Magneto's helm. Of the metals put into it. That's the simplest way for it to be done. Something artificial. She goes to open her mouth and forms things. Trusting in the others to read her lips. These fascists are only familiar with Earth in passing. So they'll know common languages.. But the Kryptonians should know all of them.

Monet goes to flit her lips up and down and goes to mouth the words in Arabic. 'Get off the helmets'. And she can hopefully read thier minds. Just an opening for one thats high enough ranking to have something useful.. And she can grab something from it with focus. But now is nto the time. Just for a few moments when they have a chance to charge..

Minoke has posed:
Minoke hums happily as the enemy hacking attempts to breach the scoutship's systems are being rebuffed as she expands the firewalls, pushing the enemy back, and is holding up the gates. She grits her teeth as she is able to keep them out. But she's doing her best to just make sure they can't get in and is managing.

She then decides to try to counterattack and intrudes into THEIR systems. There's only one she cares about at first - the ship shields. She actually manages to deactivate them - but was pushed back with an audible yelp but the shields were down for a few seconds before they were restored. "Aha..." she murmurs, lapsing to her native Coluan tongue.

Then, she tried a backdoor, and got sneakily into the teleporter system, and got the log of the last action - and now has a pattern lock on the kidnapped party... them all being in one spot helps. Her subtle intrusion there, she sees an intruder forcefield that everyone is in. Well, they might be able to beam through the shields. The intruder forcefield would make the beam difficult. So - she tries one more thing - and tries to attenuate the forcefield, making it weaker... she knows what Superman and the like are capable of - a weak forcefield could possibly be breached. Hopefully not being noticed - she didn't turn it OFF - just weakened it. She can't do a lot in their systems while keeping them out, but her two subtle infiltrations - the teleporters and weakening that one small forcefield - might just have some effect.

Conner Kent has posed:
Seeing Karen and Kal are unable to punch through the forcefield is both very worrisome and clearly means Conner has no chance to do it whatsoever. He is just half-Kryptonian, after all. But he is also half-human, and that means he has a couple tricks most Kryptonians can't duplicate.

So, grimacing at the failed attempts to break through, he instead half-kneels and touches the floor with a hand. Maybe Zod will think he is kneeling to him, the jerk.

If there is a forcefield covering the floor, it is thin enough his telekinetic power can flow through. Very nice, so what can he break now... the forcefield tech is all around and it is way, way too complex for him. But if Monet can link him to Alura...

Wait, there is a fluctuation, as if someone was draining power of the machine, which means power goes through this and that and... yeah. Lets say all those funky crystals break down right now. "Yeah, cool. My prayers to the god of thunderstorms and... hmm, forcefields, are answered. Go back to your workshop, Vohc, you are obsolete."

Go punch him, auntie Karen!

Karen Starr has posed:
Karen usually punches, but this wasn't for the punch. Instead, she had cut loose with full-power heat vision to try and overload the shields, aiming at Vohc. Red light flares against the coruscating force field...right up until there's suddenly an interruption in the power there. The twin beams lance out and catch Vohc right in his chest. It's full-power. This...might be messy.

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Things happen as if in slow motion, yet all at once. Karen's strike upon Vohc blasts through his chest. Green goop shoots out the back as he begins to collapse in slow motion. This isn't the first time they've "killed" Vohc though and odds are these is but a minor set back for the Kryptonian god of building.

Monet's little request of helmet removal is heard by Clark in his mind. He shifts his head ever so slightly and lances out with his heat vision slicing through the side of Zod's helmet as he begins to dodge. All the Kryptonian eyes begin to glow red as they also raise their weapons all in slow motion. Staying here is a death sentence for them all.

Yet in that briefest of split second moments Monet touches Zod's mind. It is a hateful and prideful thing. Arrogant. Powerful. But the death of Vohc before his eyes has shaken him and also given him hope of leading the Hegemony. However there is one little thing niggling there right at the back. A flaw. A flaw in their transport from one timeline to another. A flaw that----

Monet doesn't get to feel the rest of that thought as the party is teleported back on to the scout ship as suddenly as they had been whisked away. Minoke's intrusions gave her the smallest window of control but the Hegemony systems are fighting her back. At best it is a stalemate.

Alura is bewildered by what just transpired. Pivot, adapt, the Hegemony wasn't technologically advanced at all - they were being gifted knowledge from beyond by a cheating cheater of god. Which means -- "Disabling all safeties."

Her hands go in to motion as she shuts off the phantom drive safety protocols and hits jump. The phantom zone rips open inside the docking bad even as the Kryptonian weapons begin to pelt the shields of the scout ship. The blasts rock the vehicle and then, swoosh, it is gone.

Alura tries very hard to untense every tense little thing in her body as they float in the inky black voice of the phantom zone. She is lost for words. But she knows her lore; Vohc won't come in to the phantom zone. He hates it here. This is where he imprisoned Flamebird and Nightwing after all. According to legend.

"Minoke.. you're okay. You didn't get teleported with the rest of us. Strange." She narrows her eyes thoughtfully, then sets course back to Earth. "We're going to need some help. That's twice now we've killed Vohc and I suspect he'll be back a third time. We need to learn how to end the last god of Krypton before he takes over the galaxy."

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet goes in to try and take as much from Zod as she can. He is a hateful thing. He is garbage. He is scum. But she has felt the minds of far, far worse. She has felt the minds of abominations, of monsters. She has felt the minds of far, far more horrific beings. But that does not count as something in her favor. Only a reminder that the capacity for evil can be in virtually anyone. No matter the world, no matter the species, no matter the dimension. A stark reminder that the darkness can be in anyone.

She gets that quick little bit from his consciousness. The sudden zest of a potential play for power. The awareness of a flaw that.. She can't quite get out of him before they're zone. They're too far away, and she's too disroiented. In the midst o fthe melee, escaping is far, far more important than stalling for a few more seconds to get information. She goes to brace herself, moving to quickly share the information amongst the others that she got telepathically.

Dizzy, disoriented, seh can only stumble back on her seat after having passed along the infromation to the rest in a barely decipherable form mentally in the hopes that one of the others can grasp it with comprehension. Her eyes roll bcak into her head as she closes them to try and catch her breath while they hav a few moments of quiet.

Minoke has posed:
Minoke is still at the console, and barely reacts to the reutrn of the beings - apparently she managed to trigger the recall function, but she was STILL fighting the hackers off. She makes one solid trilling beep sound to acknowledge their return as she stays still, now focusing her saboteur efforts on the structural integrity field.... and then suddenly, the intruding code is gone as the phantom projector took them away.

She lets go of the console, sinking to her knees, swaying slowly. "That was... intense..." she states softly. She turns her glowing gaze to Alura. "I am not... biological. They were scanning for life-forms. Apparently I don't count. Which is a good thing... they were hacking the ship. I kept them out of navigation and engineering - and pushed them back. Even managed to get into a few systems. I got the teleporter logs and was able to get a lock, and then weakened the forcefield... though it started to malfunction afer my power-sapping efforts in a way I cannot explain."

Her words are labored and a bit staticky, as if her voice was starting to malfunction. Obviously Minoke is not actually Coluan, but a construct from there. "What... happened over there? All your eyes were glowing when you returned..." She is swaying back and forth - obviously she pushed herself to the limits.

Conner Kent has posed:
Conner's eyes widen when Power Girl fries Vohc. "Damn, frying him like that was..." not really cool. Then again, he can't die, so it was not a killing attack. Contrarily to what the Hegemony Kryptonians are going to do!

And then they are teleported back to the ship. Whew.

"You saved us?" He asks Minoke, "awesome... and yeah, I broke that forcefield machine. It looked like a good idea at the moment."

Karen Starr has posed:
    "I...wasn't expecting the shield to just drop like that." Kara admits. She seems a little rattled like that. Unlike most except Alura, she was raised on Krypton. Frying a god tends to have an impact on a person. "Good job. With the shields." she says, her voice a bit subdued. She's glad to be back on the ship...but she's also going to be in her head a little after that.