8855/Guardians of the Backwaters of Space

Guardians of the Backwaters of Space
Date of Scene:	29 November 2021
Location:	Cockpit - Milano
Synopsis:	A Star Cruiser (Space Version of a Cruise Ship) starts to fall into a black hole. Gamora steals the Milano to go help finds it being pushed. Peter and Rocket fly like pros, and create miniature Big Bangs. The ship is still lost but a new threat is discovered.
Cast of Characters:	Gamora, Peter Quill, Rocket

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Gamora has posed:
    After their fateful arrival on Plookin III, the team seemed to be taking things a little bit relaxed, or for a few hours before the proverbial S started hitting the fans. The news systems started to go ballistic with reports of a large and wealthy space cruise liner being forced into a gravity well.

    The reports say nothing of what's pushing the state of the art liner into the black hole's pull, but it's easy for those paying attention to the news feeds that it's only affecting the massive ship as smaller ships and life pods are jettisoning just fine.

    Running back onto the Milano with a sense of duty, Gamora looks around the ship once, finding who is and isn't on board and deciding to power up the ship and prepare for launch all on her own. No take off yet, but she's getting ready in a hurry.

Peter Quill has posed:
'Here I go again on my own! Going down the only road, I've ever knoooown!' plays loudly on Peter's stereo as he sits at a makeshift weight bench and pumps some iron with a dumb bell. He's wearing a sleeveless black tshirt with Yoda's picture on the chest, and a pair of green sweatpants that have holes in the knees.

His eyes look up as Gamora runs past him toward the cockpit. "Hey, where you going?" He asks as she just blazes on by. "Gamora?" He asks further, before he hears the ship starting up.

"Hey, we haven't finished all the repairs!"

He drops the weight and moves to stand up, grabbing his towel off the table beside him to wipe at his face as he jogs after her toward the cockpit.

"What's the big deal?!" He says loudly as his music keeps playing in the background.

Gamora has posed:
    Gamora's fingers dance rapidly from the flight yoke, to the throttle bar, and then from there to the datapad and relay in front of her. Having omitted the flight webbing in her chair for now, the urgency is palpable. Pausing briefly to reach down into the pocket on the front of her chair, she pulls out a data pad and without a glance spins it over her head, to land in Quill's hands at his chest if he reacts fast enough. "Catch. Do you not pay attention to the galactic news?"

    The ships fussion coils start heating up and she taps the meter on the screen and shoots a look to Quill, but looks back quickly and mumbles to herself about him still being cheap.

    The datapad is on a news package rattling off stats about the cruiser liner and the types of wealth that would be able to ride it. The BIGGEST of shots. This doesn't exactly seem like Gamora's wheel house, she's not like Rocket who would be salivating over the pockets he could empty, or the equipment he could salvage off the ship should it be deemed scrap by those fleeing for their lives. "We're going to help." She says finally, nearly complete with the onboard pre-flight check list.

Peter Quill has posed:
Peter throws the towel over his shoulder and walks toward this datapad where he stops and leans over it to read the text and imagery. "What the Hell?" He asks then as he looks over to Gamora. "We're going to rush TOWARD the Space Titanic?" He says with anxious confusion, as the ship rattles and rumbles, causing the CAPTAIN to reach up and take hold of an 'Oh Shit' handle on the roof behind Gamora in HIS chair.

He reaches for his towel off his shoulder to wipe his browline again before he just tosses the towel off to the side and shoves his way over to one of the other chairs... he hesitates though... staring at it, and then over at her. Then back at the chair, and then back over at her....

"I can't sit in one of these..." He mutters under his breath as his eyes look up at the viewport and then back at the aft areas of the ship.

"I wonder if Rocket and Groot came back from their shopping..." He says as they're taking off.

Gamora has posed:
    "We'll find out when Rocket calls complaining that we don't love him and left him behind like everyone else in his life." Gamora says, looking over her shoulder towards Quill and rolling her eyes, "Just sit. We're three jumps away. One of the closest to the well." Then she sighs as the ship lurches off the landing pad and there's a groad within the metal as she pushes the ship upwards. Not the best pilot, especially on this crew, but she can fly, and she rises up quickly out of the minimal atmosphere on Plookin.

    "We shouldn't be gone long." Gamora reports to Quill as they soar out into space, and cut off a freighter to get to the jump rings just ahead of them. A hand is waved for no reason but to make Gamora feel better for being in a rush and quickly the Milano is slipping through space in rapid succession into a nearly pitch black void.

    No stars, no planets, just, a big empty view, but turning in any direction shows they're looking directly into a black hole from a distance that would make any sphincter pucker. Gamora stands up, and motions for Quill to take the helm. "Fly. Get us to the liner." She demands, stepping back out of the cockpit. "We'll steal a thruster or fuel cell for Rocket." She finally admits. That should placate the little guy.

Peter Quill has posed:
Peter glares at the chair when he tells her to sit. "But--" He says before the ship lurches in to the sky. "I'll be back." He grumbles then as she seems insistent on them doing this thing. As Gamora gets them in to atmo and beyond, Peter goes down through the hatch in the floor to his bunkroom where he changes clothes and comes back up with his jacket in non-trench form hanging in his right hand, his Jimmy Hendrix tshirt falling around his waist as he gets to the Captain chair just as she stands up and tells him to take over.

Peter's eyes go to the front windows and his jacket is slung around his shoulders as he settles in to the controls, then looks back over her shoulder. "This is nuts, you know!" He says after her. "We're gonna get squished in to nano particles!" He adds as he turns back to the controls and gets himself in to the proper frame of mind....

His right hand reaches over and he flips a switch, pushes two quick buttons and then the Danger Zone from Top Gun starts to play.

The Milano zips past escaping pods, and other strange vehicles as Peter pilots it toward the Space Liner!

"I've never had a more accurate moment to play this song..." He mutters as he controls the ship up along side the giant space whale of a starship...

Gamora has posed:
    "If you're as good a pilot as you insist you are. We'll be fine." Gamora says, not saying anything about what she plans on doing, but the sounds of her plasteel plating snapping into place should be enough of a hint as to what she's planning. Geared up for space and zero atmo, Gamora, takes one of Rocket's collapsing telescopping pistol-rifles and slings it over her back before she takes up the two folding swords off the table and clicks them into place on her thighs.

    "PETER!" She yells over the comms, not sure they're active.

    They are.

    Noted.

    "Fly us over the crystalline fuel siphons, the one closer to the black hole. We'll both have to be quick, but you make sure to pick me up on the other side." She says, her feet carrying her next to the cargo hold doors and she reaches up to activate the first safety override and hovers her hand over the second. "You'll feel a -KICK-" The ship lurches heavily, nearly pushing the Milano into the well, and all sorts of alarms and klaxons sounding to get Quill's attention to vacate the area.

Peter Quill has posed:
"Closer?!" Peter shouts over his shoulder at the voice in the back of the ship!

His eyes go back out as it seems to be against any of their control now whether they get closer or not! He reaches forward and jams the throttle as far as it'll go.

"Talk to me, Goose..." Peter mutters as the song continues to play through the cockpit.

"Who is Goose?" Drax asks calmly from the chair over Peter's left shoulder. It causes the pilot to jump as he looks back quickly for just a second. "Nevermind!" Peter shouts as he points at the console beside Drax after the whole ship lurches. "Push that button!" Peter shouts and points at a blinking red light. Drax, thusly, looks down at it and pushes it with an elbow before looking up again at the viewscreen. "So many pretty colors." The big man says as Peter gets a afterburner system going!

"Okay, we're coming up on the target zone!" He shouts back to Gamora through the comms.

Gamora has posed:
    "Don't linger and try to be the hero." Gamora warns as she stands at the front of the doorway that is about to. "GO GO GO!" Gamora shouts into the comms as she slaps the release button and the cargo hold is ejected violently into space, with a few trinkets and maybe a loose gun or two.

    The Space Assassin has her head up and is aimed towards the massive Space Liner that is being pushed into the gravity well at her back. She nears the drive system on the side of the ship and in a motion unsheathes, and extends a sword before it starts to crackle with elecriticy, keeping it from fusing with the other metals when she grabs onto the ship.

    Boots magnetically seal to the Cruise Liner and she looks up to the retreating Milano, "Peter watch out!" She calls as a series of escape pods vomit out of the multi-trillion dollar vessel and curve out and away from the black hole like missiles fired towards a moving target.

Peter Quill has posed:
Peter glances at the control board as the cargo hold vents and he sees Gamora just eject out in to space. "She's so hardcore..." He mutters under his breath before looking back to space, and the madness going on all around it.

"Turn!" Drax shouts just as gamora warns of whats to come!

"I see it, I see it!" Peter says through gritted teeth. His hands squeeze the steering column and he rolls the Milano through the pods, filled with screaming aliens that are flailing their many hands and arms!

ARound two, under three, up over another four and the nimble Milano comes through the cloud of escape boats.

"What is your plan here, Gamora?!" He shouts over the comms. "We're not saving this thing, its doomed for sure!"

Rocket has posed:
ENTER ROCKET F'N RACCOON!

"All the water's merky on tha weekend-" You know how when you hear a song and don't actually know the words? "-E'ery body needs a pair of pants..." Over comms, even. CLINK CLINK! His magnetic boots attach to the side of the airliner.

"Alright a'holes, I'm here to save the day..." Sporting a massive rocket launcher slung over his shoulder, the tiny Rodant Guardian clunks along towards the far edge of the cruiser liner to level the weapon up in an aimming position.

"Imma shot a big ass missile wit a short fuse detentation an' create a reverse singularity that'll completely save all these people - or blow them all up an' we can get outta here."

"Either way is fine with me."

Gamora has posed:
    Gamora is about to stab her sword into the side of the liner, cut her way in like a tuna can. Not that she knows what that is, but work with me. And she stops... fingers up to the side of her helmet and says, "NO! ROCKET!"

    "I'm on the other side of the ship!!!" The reverse singularity would squish her on the side of the ship like a very small green bug on the side of a planet. The assassin is now /SPRINTING/ to the sleeping quarters and guest compartments that would likely have the easiest way to get in, "We need to find out WHO is pushing this thing into the black hole." She doesn't seem concerned with stopping it.

    The Milano starts to beep warnings and a voice speaks in the cockpit, "Missile lock. Missile lock. Warning. Warning. Missile lock. Missile lock." Repeated over and over.

Peter Quill has posed:
"Rocket?" Peter says over the comms, having thought they left him back at port. "Wait, you can do that?!" He asks with disbelief.

"Rocket can do lots of things." Drax dryly says as he sits there just watching.

Peter ignores him while flying the Milano close to where Gamora is, making sure to be there if she needs a way out... His eyes go from the hazards of space, back to the Liner and back again.

And then the missile warning starts.

"That's not good." Drax chimes in.

"Tell me about it, Buddy." Peter says as his eyes frantically look at his scopes. "Guys... I think something other than gravity is behind all of this. Something is targeting us!" He jams the throttle up again and rolls the Milano on its portside, end over end to dance over the hull of the Space Liner!

Rocket has posed:
"Oh, hey, Gamora." Rocket says this super casually like he wasn't about to do the windshield bug thing. Drax's trust does not go unnoticed, "I wish /all/ of you had as much faith in my ability to do many things, includin' blow up a missile, that would not blow up a ship, but blow a ship out of bein' blown up..." BACK TO GAMORA (she had complaints) "...Fine, but as soon's yer not on the other said of the ship Imma blow it up- I mean blow up a missile that definitely doesn't blow it up, but might blow it up..."

"it'll be fine."

"I am Groot." Groot says over comms,

"I said it'd be fine!"

When Peter informs them that there's trouble aboard with the missiles and the not just gravity.

"Oh cool, when ya pick'em up on sensors, I'll shoot a rocket at them and blow'em up."

"I AM Groot."

"Yeah, but they're not the good guys are they? It's completely different than the cruise liner okay, just trust me, I know what I'm doin'."

Gamora has posed:
    The sound of her sword piercing the hull sings into the ship and then she wrenches a circle into the side and she slips down into the ship. "I'll get to the bridge. Shouldn't be any one left at this point." Gamora reports as she's still wearing her helm and sprinting down the halls, following the maps with a glance making sure she's on the right path.

    "I'm as clear as I'll ever be." Gamora warns as she slides her sword into the door and starts to pry it open so she can access the locked down bridge.

    The ship targetting the Milano slowly fades into view, a long ship with little in the ways of design and fancy. It's a ship with function only in mind as a barrage of missiles errupt from the thing, much like the escape pods on the liner, only these are tracking the Milano starting with a wide arch.

    Watching this on a radar display, Gamora frowns and slams her hand against the wall. "MOVE PETER!"

Peter Quill has posed:
Peter is listening to the comm chatter as he focuses on flying as well, especially with the warning alarms going off, not that he isn't familar with those anyway.

"You two... three..." Groot too! "Better get done whatever the Hell it is you're doing." He says back to them both before the enemy reveals itself on scopes.

"Incoming! Hold on to something!"

Drax's eyes go huge as he grips the drink in his lap harder. "Fly better!" He shouts at Peter!

The Captain grits his teeth and starts to spin the Milano away from the missiles, trying to take them away from the escape pods too!

"These things don't have the thruster power we do... I'm gonna try something!" He exclaims as he spins the ship closer to the black hole's Event Horizon that is clearly defined by a sphere on the sensor readout! As such, the Milano starts to skim the point-of-no-return, hoping that the missiles will get sucked in while they don't!

Rocket has posed:
"I am Groot!"

"I see'em!"

"I am Groot!"

"Yeah, I know they're firin' at the Milano, tha's why I'm shootin' at'em. Why are you suddenly so chatty?!" Rocket brings the rocket up on his shoulder and takes aim at the fancy thingy that fades into view to take aim upon the Milano. "Oooo ho ho ho ho, I got you a'holes now..." Murmuring, trailing the weapon ahead in what he predicts will be their flight path and lets loose with a side winding missile towards that he /calculates/ and also /hopes/ hits the nose of the attack ship.

"Keep dodgin', Quill! I'm savin' yer life right now, ya can thank me after."

Gamora has posed:
    Gamora in the bridge of the ship pauses and looks around at all the blinking lights, the flashing warnings, and the sounds of the dying ship wailing in fear as it descends slowly into the unknowable. She walks up to the holoprojection table, where the captain would assess the flight paths, the detris in the ship's way, and any info deemed important for him to know about. She steps up to this, puts her hands on the lip and leans forward, trying to think about her next move.

     The sounds of her team mates in her ears seem to fade away as she ponders the fraility of life. Her history, her adoptive father, her adoptive sister. Would things have been different.

    There's movement on the bridge and Gamora snaps out of her own mind, sword readied up high, near her face, pointed end aimed before her when a hand drops onto the ground on the other side of the table. Light Grey and Black, similar to the ship outside, and she pauses, the space suit is thin, with a large sphereicle helmet with a hollow sort of large eye or camera system on the front, a thick black fluid on the hand is obviously from the wounds sustained by the astronaught... "Who are you?"

    The missiles skim the surface of the event horizon, trailing the Milano with speed unmatchable by the Ravagers ship but the gravity well sucks them in, and though they try to strike the orange and blue ship, they can't pull up and begin the infinite decay into the black. The ship that fired the missiles stays near the liner, and the ominous force of the ship can't be denied as Rocket's attack is tanked with minimal effort as a blue ring echoes out from the point of impact, near the surface of the ship, but the shield it hints at seems impossibly thick, even in the known universe not much could have just absorbed Rocket's attack as easily as it just did.

    "What's going on out there?" Gamora asks, her tone shaken but she's fighting to sound stoic as ever.

Peter Quill has posed:
"I'll start issuing out 'thanks' when we're back the HELL out of this place!" Peter chimes up over the comms. His eyes dance from the stars, to the readouts, and back again. When he sees the missiles tailing the Milano begin to get sucked in to infinity, he starts to laugh happily, then yanks up on the controls. "That thing is hungrier than you are, Buddy." Peter says back to Drax, who starts to bellow a laugh.

The Milano soars back toward the space liner, just in time to see Rocket's attack shimmer off that thing's shields.

"What kind of ship even is that?!" He says as he flips a switch and powers up the Milano's weapons.

Now the Ravagers ship is on an attack run, and once he's within range the pilot of the pretty colored ship opens fire with everything the Milano has to offer!

Gamora's question goes unanswered, for now!

Rocket has posed:
"Now I got'em right wheres I want't'em..." That's basically a lie.

The rocket fires off, hits the shields ont he ship, and does literally nothing... absolutely less than nothing. Which is more heart breaking than angering. But it does put the ship in a percarious position. Specifically as Peter starts firing up the Milano's weapons.

See, Rocket has a plan:

As soon as one of those missiles fires from the nose of the Blue/White ship, Rocket lets loose with his white hole gun, setting the timer specifically to exact calculations, to explode /just/ behind the rockets fired by their home/ship.

Which, if you're following the science at home, acts as a black hole in reverse, which, if you're following the MADE UP SCIENCE, will make those missles fly very f'n fast.

"Hehehehehehehehehehehehehe."

Gamora has posed:
    The other ship fires a new volley of missiles, the shield of course dropping based on computer calculations to allow the missiles past. No way could a living creature time it so perfectly.

    Except Rocket does.

    His Reverse Singularity gun fires the one time, before the weapon's casing begins to spark and glow red hot. One shot! One Universe! And the experimental weapon sails perfectly to land within the shield, creating a 'white hole' an explosion so dense, so perfect that the missiles and the ship caught on opposite sides are ejected at near relativistic speeds. The ship's own wormhole drives triggering and pushing the thing into slip space as a sort of defense mechanism, to keep it from shredding into quintillions of infinitely small pieces.

    While the missiles tumble at relativistic speeds, past the Milano and the yet the Cruise Liner gets three direct hits along its enormous frame. The silence of space seems to rumble within everyone's teeth due to the impossible explosion near the massive gravity well and a counter well nearby will cause ripples in the scientific community for years.

    "Um... GUYS!" Gamora says, her radio finally ringing through. "GET ME OUT OF HERE!" She demands, standing on the side of the Liner, opposite the gravity well.

Peter Quill has posed:
Quill is laying in to the strange enemy ship with the repeaters, firing off glowing blue plasma that flickers across space! He watches as Rocket puts on a show though, and it makes his eyes go huge. Along with Drax's. Drax even points at the show, and mouths something (a curse word) before the Milano rumbles at the sight of it all.

Gamora's voice draws Peter's eyes back to the situation and he breaks off his attack run, firing the engines toward the Cruise ship once more.

"Rocket." Peter says. "I'm never going to question how you did that. I just hope and pray you never do it anywhere near me." He says over comms.

The Milano sweeps in over the Space Liner, with the fires across its hull being passed through as the Captain directs the ship toward Gamora's place.

"Honey, your ride is here." He says, drawing back on the throttle for the ship to come to a stop, or at least damn near a stop.

Rocket has posed:
It's like an episode of Knowhere's got Talent, where the fat Trabashian that nobody thought could carry a tune, sings so beautifully it actually makes you weep. Rocket is standing there with his big ass gravity well gun slung over his shoulder, hand wrapped around the pistol style grip, with the barrel draped over his arm... and as the two singularities hit one another, causing a cascade of boom booms big enough to make even the Religious nutbags on Terra believe in the big bang, there's a smile on his face large enough to land the Milano in.

WOOOOOP BOOOOOOOOOOOM

The rippling rings of expanding ignited gas extends outwards until they dissipate into the void of space, reflected back in the black lines of his goggles... "I'm a F****** Genius." He murmurs, to nobody, but also to every one.

Just in case they're not sure.

But there's a Gamora to save. Peter's coming in all white knight, so Rocket skip jumps on his booster boots and steps into the open hatch of the Milano, snatched up immediately by the massive Groot who lumbers towards the cockpit.

"All tha water's merky on tha weekend... e'erboby needs a pair of pants..."

Gamora has posed:
    Gamora is waving her hand above her head trying to get Peter's attention visually even though her IFF tag should be pinged on his cockpit view. "I don't want to be in this sector when that black hole starts to really eat that." Because that's what they do. They eat. The other thing is now a buffet grafted onto the monster's maw.

    Unhooking her magnets and giving a heave, Gamora catches the bottom of the Milano and walks along underneath until she gets to the hatch and climbs back into the cargo hold. "We're all aboard Quill. Get us out of here." Gamora says, pressing a button and sending the nanoparticles of her helmet back into the micro-chamber at her neck.

    Walking up behind Rocket, she looks down at the smallest Guardian and squints those deadly eyes at the maniac. "Thank you." She says, before reaching her hand out over him and opening it. A small circuit board with a glowing tube on the end flashes and pulses a vibrant pink. The internal component to a galactic cruiser's detris detector. Basically the guts to an intra-galactic debris and material scanner. She's not sure how Rocket could use it, but she knows he can. "Thanks for that back there." Turning her head away to aim at the cockpit. "Nice flying, captain." Making sure to compliment the pilot. Slightly.