Owner Pose
Darcy Lewis S.W.O.R.D. headquarters is not the big flashy building of the Triskelion. It is nicely designed. Instead of a special docking bay, runway, for the quinjets - there's only one quinjet stationed here and it's in a hanger under ground. That's because this was Fury's gift to SWORD. The first space capable quinjet. Not just space capable, but also with a gift from an alien race.

The Kymellians, when they detected Earth's entrance on to the galactic stage, reached out a hand and Fury responded. They presented us with a gift. A rainbow battery of their own design. Something, they assured us, would aid us in our early steps in to the universe.

Darcy is sitting at the controls for the Kymellians battery and jump drive. It's positioned in a room not too far from the cockpit with the door locked. Just a regular lock but still there's a sign that says 'Authorised Personnel Only' on it.

"We're going to jump up in to space now. Is everyone ready?," she asks glancing around at all the people. She doesn't wait for a response. All systems are green. She hits the button and with a VWOMPF they find themselves in the dark of space with a brilliant blue planet below them - Earth - and a distant grey satellite - the Moon. The sun is casting gorgeous shadows in to the void.

With her usual dry humour she asks, "Is everyone still in one piece? no one merged with a fly?" She doubts that'd happen. A small smile on her lips as she picks up the coffee on the desk next to her and takes a sip. She begins the calculations based on her modelling software of where they're going to go next.

A solitary 'thunk' noise hits the side of the ship. An icy small cube of acid bounces off the ablative armour. There's no doubt going to be more of that the closer they get to the source.
Jessica Drew They had rehearsed so many parts of the space flight, desensitizing agents to different aspects of jumping that the jump is nearly anti-climatic. Jess's heart rate might not jump, but the rehearsals haven't lessened the primal thrill of going into space. She grins to herself, gloved hands grasping the arms of the seat cushioned against high-G's.

It's no gradual transition to zero-G, from normal weight to pressing against the seat restraints, keeping her in place. The thrill is not gone.

"Oh, yes. Ready to rock and roll."

Grin ratcheted down, she glances at the others then begins to unlatch herself.

The solid whump of something hitting the side of the Quinjet merits a glance and a raised eyebrow, but no comment.
Ava Starr Ava is sat in the back of the flight compartment. She's already survived a bout in space... with Thanos and the Black Order, no less. She's done the hyperdrive thing, too -- though, okay, not nearly enough to be as blase about it as she seems. She's also ported from one end of the galaxy to the other *without* a ship. Without meaning to be, she's kinda become 'Captain Marvel Lite'... mostly because of that bout with Thanos and the Black Order. (RIP, Phyla-Vell.)

She has a mildly bored expression on her face, though anyone observant enough will note that her eyes are quite alert. She's anything but bored; she's merely got her game-face on -- a game face honed by hours sitting in back of transports until her handlers needed her particular skillset. Sabateur. Assassin. Ghost. How she's ever going to reconcile that with her new 'Protector of the Universe' status, she's not sure.

She refuses to dwell on it now.

Instead, she watches Finley at the controls of the Q-jet, Darcy nearby. Her eyes flick briefly to the others once they're afloat in space. The thump against the hull merits a slight tilt of her head, focus returning to Finley, who likely has a better idea of what just happened than the others.
Michael Erickson     Cal'hatar - Erickson - hasn't been on a starship since 1975. The last thing he saw from a viewport was the teleporter complex on Telij, where Imperial intelligence operated a long-distance insertion operation. It was there that he was transformed into a few billion quanta in an energy beam, projected through a number of military stargates, and arrived on this planet. The planet which they escape now.

    It's not bad, really. The Quinjet's primitive compared to many spacegoing vessels, but only in terms of material engineering. It's sleek, fast-looking. Some people might think it a microyacht, not a shuttle. Erickson's not sure how it might handle in a fight, but it's nimble enough it should at least be able to dance through the kill-beams of a patrol vessel. Hopefully. He sits next to Jessica, dressed in the gray lines of the combat scout suits that Doctor Richards so kindly donated. They're comfortable, much more so than he had expected...but Richards is that kind of a genius. Earth is blessed with a number of such minds. So he smiles to himself, settling back in his seat. Looks to Jessica there. Earth is a very, very fortunate world. And so is he, really, to live there.

    "Check your meters if it gets too distracting in the moment," he offers to Jessica, his tone light, teasing. "Or your rifle. The suits will stand up to most acids we're likely to encounter."

    Which...isn't /entirely/ true. But he doesn't want to say that. They've already talked it out.
Carol Danvers At some point the ship's sensors notice an energy signature rising from the planet below them. The radio crackles and the voice of Carol Danvers can be heard. <<On my way up to rendezvous. Sorry for the delay. Had a two-headed android who hits like Hulk to take care of first,>> she tells them.

Anyone looking out the cockpit back towards the planet would eventually be able to pick out a light source moving against the Earth's backdrop, the white glow of cosmic energy drawing steadily closer. <<How's it looking so far?>> she asks as she cruises up at a relatively slow pace by her standards, while she's still near enough in Earth orbit that satellites might be affected by her passage.
Finley Ellison Finley, absorbed in the piloting of the Quinjet, misses Ava's game face. Which is a shame really. She'd've enjoyed that.

"All present and accounted for," she reports to Darcy. And then adds helpfully, "In our original configurations, too." Or at least as they were before they entered hyperspace.

She does her best to guide them gently though the frozen acid pellets as Darcy begins her next set of calculations. Despite Ava's new fancy jewelry, Finley doubts they can repair the ship's shields on the fly -- especially since she's not dressed for a spacewalk. (Ava'd insisted she'd suit up in a SWORD tacsuit. But she'd drawn the line at bulky space suits while they still had heat and breathable air.) And the shields wouldn't last indefinitely. So the tactical avoidance flight plan.

She waves at Carol through the cockpit window. "It's, uh, acid rain-y?" she hazards.
Darcy Lewis As the Earth orbits, so do its satellites. The Peak illuminates in to view when the sun splashes across it. A long sword like blade cuts through space with a circular habitat section where the hilt of a sword would be. The designer clearly felt inspired. Small windows a long distance away but just barely the agents in SQJ1 can see Commander Brand waving. Her voice cuts in over the comms: "Good hunting Agents. Everyone here is cheering for you. Fly true Agent Danvers. Bring Fury's prized possession back in one piece Agent Lewis."

Darcy draws in a slow breath. The ambient temperature in the quinjet drops as excess heat exsanguinates in to space. Even for sarcastic Darcy this is a _moment_. She's been in space before, but it's not a regular occurrence and never before because she pressed the button. She gulps down her dry throat and then takes another sip of the coffee.

The coffee is floating about in the lidded coffee cup and she can feel herself tugging against the seat belts holding her to her chair. Weightlessness. Her cheeks flush with excitement - there's one thing to spend your years staring up at the stars studying them as an astrophysicist but it's another thing entirely to be up here with them. She says a silent thank you to Fury.

She looks over to Finley next to her and says, "...I've got our next jump. I hope you can keep up Captain. Here we go." Unlike the kind of space flight so many species develop which break the barrier between luminal and superluminal motion - the jump drive simply connects the two spaces together and then disconnects before Einstein can stand up and dispute the spooky action at a distance.

With a VWOMPFH! the stars blur and shift to a new visage. Off in the distance is a beautiful red and blue smear across the dark skies - a nebula. Tiny little 'thunks' start to bang against the outside of the shuttle - proof that Darcy has aimed them in the right direction. The exterior shielding flickers each time one of the little frozen cubes of acid passes through it. The shields are there to make jumps safe and possible, and hold in the oxygen if it tries to escape.

Darcy squirms a little. All those little impacts are not a comfortable thing to hear on the exterior of the ship. Like a hammer hitting a gong over and over again, or hail crashing against a tinfoil roof. The ablative armour still holding strong. "Fin, nice swoopy swoops - there's only going to be more of them where we're going. Perhaps some target practice from everyone else might be in order too if it gets too much to dodge."

She turns back to her computer and starts to type again. Modelling the next jump is getting easier with practice and as they zero in on the anomaly sending this strange alien invasion force to Earth. She pauses a moment as she realises the distance they've travelled.

"Hey.. everyone. I know this is small fry for some of us but for the rest of us? we've boldly gone 27 light years from home." As this sinks in, she feels her tummy upset from the notion. They are but a tiny speck of light in a vast unforgiving universe.
Jessica Drew Jessica can see just part of the space habitat through the port, silver and black, turning under a distant sun. She has no investment in appearing cool, turning to look at Erickson, the old space hand, with a beatific grin, she points.

Shades of Star Wars. Still, nothing had prepared her for the feeling of being turned inside on a quantum level and spit out back into another part of the galaxy.

The grin is going to stick, "Keep it up, Lewis, I like it just fine. Just a hop and a skip for some of us."
Ava Starr Getting turned inside out on a quantum level is the story of Ava's life. From that perspective, she doesn't specifically 'feel' the jump. What she *can* actually feel is the 27LY shift through space -- as if through some sort of weird 6th sense. It must be that 'cosmic sense' Carol was telling her about.

That's new. Or, at least, it's the first time she's conscious of it.

As the 'acid rain' hits the hull, Ava looks up the ceiling of the craft -- not that 'up' is the only direction the sound is coming from. The Q-jet is smaller than the Milano. She could probably phase it, if she had to... though that will make her useless later. So... let's just hope the shields hold.

Nevertheless, she's starting to feel restless. She'd like something to shoot. The pseudo-bored expression remains, however, only the faint crease of her brow betraying her impatience. She shifts to get a better look out the front window at where they're going. "What sort of weapons are on this crate?"
Carol Danvers Carol watches the bending of space and the Quinjet flying through it. She sends out a few blasts of photonic energy at some of the nearer acidic jelly, and then begins to glow brighter as the cosmic power of a white hole fills her.

Brighter and brighter she glows, until finally she jets off, faster than light itself, at a speed capable of crossing galaxies. The 27 light year jump is just a short hop at those speeds, and she slows as her cosmic awareness guides her in towards the Earth craft.

The first notice of her catching up is a pair of blasts that burn acid spores away before they reach the ship. "Seems like they are getting thicker," she says. "Worrisome they are coming from this far out. There are other planets that are at risk if they are radiating in all directions," she says, pausing to look at a holographic galactic map displayed by her suit, showing known inhabited planets in the vicinity of Earth.
Finley Ellison Finley nods to Darcy. Like the astrophysicist, she spent her childhood dreaming of the stars. Hell, she'd designed a theoretical FTL engine for her PhD. Well, one of them. And she too had danced in her seat the first time she and Ava had broken through the atmosphere. But their recent adventures had instilled some wariness in the scientist.

And then, suddenly, they're lightyears from home. Finley glances back to Ava, checking in with her partner, sensing her restlessness.

"Who wants control of the ships weapon's system?" Finley asks, making direct eye contact with her. "I'm a little busy here, playing space dodgeball."
Michael Erickson     Michael is humming a song to himself as the figures are read back to them - he's picked up Wolfmother, apparently, and is busy exercising those songbird vocal cords of his. Being a bird, or at least descended from them, the voice that comes from deep and quiet in that throat is, for anyone with the hearing, surprisingly sweet and melodic. Shame the Shi'ar see music as a form of mental dysfunction, but he's crazy already, right? He stops after everyone has their moment of history, clearing his throat, and adds, "Extremely well flown," Michael adds, and gets to his feet, finger to the comms bud in his ear. << Captain? Do you require assistance in clearing out the debris ahead? >>
Darcy Lewis Carol is right. This can't be just focused on Earth. The angles and density are all wrong. It's almost scattershot, sending them out in a burst just to see what might come of it. Like spores from a plant drifting in the breeze.

Darcy looks over her shoulder to Jess and says, "We haven't even made first contact yet." But a smile creeps over her lips. She's just as excited and it is very hard to contain both the nerves and joy. If she screws up they may never see home again. Not unless Carol can find them. But if she does screw up, that may never happen.

She returns to the maths, because the maths is what matters most. She looks at the mapped trajectories of the tiny objects hurtling toward them and she presses her lips together, "I think you're right Carol. This might not be a personal attack on Earth, so much as a coincidental one. Plotting next jump." She's always wanted to do this and now she can. "Engage," she says and presses the button. With a VWOMPF they are transported in to the heart of a nebula.

It's like staring through vapoury clouds that buffets up against the shielding outside. It's beautiful but the beauty has to take a beat because those little frozen cubes of thinking acid? they're not so frozen anymore. As they collide with the ablative armour of the quinjet they splat and sizzle, eating away at it.

They're in a vast field of the little snot monsters now. Dodging is now more art than fighter pilot and in the distance, a glowing cut in the universe tries to hide away inside the thick nebula particulates. Darcy points to the slice in space, "There.. Fin you need to get us through that .. uh .. line."

One of the cubes of acid sizzles way through a weak point and plops out on to the deck of the quinjet. It moves quickly and with purpose, dancing about before lunging toward Mike.

Darcy turns back to see this and her eyes widen, "Crap. Suits!" Now she feels a right silly for not putting it on before they left. She unclips and pushes off the chair to float over to the hanging suit and starts to clamber in to it as quickly as she can.

Another cube of acid sizzles its way inside the quinjet and bounces around assessing the threat to their invasion force. It too bounces off a wall leaving behind sizzling metal before jumping straight at Ava's face.
Jessica Drew With a sidelong glance at Erickson, Jess nods to herself, thinking the prospect of battle has him humming.



The jump light turns on, keeping her in her seat while they float at light speed through nebulas towering light-years into space. It lulls her into a sense of calm, shattered with only a momentary tingle of alarm, before a cube burns its way into their midst. Then, with no hesitation, the mutant agent rises from her seat, "All those hours of sims have to pay out sometime."

Training reflexes come into play; her first instinct is to grab the helmet under her seat and twist it into place. Jess dodges the next gob that tunnels its way through and targets yet another of the team. A few steps take her to the console. Slipping into the seat, she brings up the targeting computer and uncaps weapons.
Ava Starr "I just want to know that you're not gonna be relying on bullets and bombs against acid-- SHIT!" The acid ball that bounces off the wall passes right through her. (That's why she's called *Ghost*.) It splats against the back of her chair, eating at it briefly before it ricochets away. Phasing right out of her restraints and her chair -- really, both of them were more for show, and for the comfort of others than herself -- she solidifies long enough to grab hold of a second suit and shove it forward at Finley. If she could phase her partner safely into it, she would. As it is, she figures it's time she put her new cosmic powers to use.

"Don't. Die." she tells Finley. Then, she's phasing backwards right through the quinjet bulkhead, as if diving backward off a diving board.

As she joins Carol outside, she brings her fists up in front of her in a classic energy firing position. Using quantum energy to propel herself and keep herself stationary above and a little ahead of the q-jet, for as long as it's in this space, she lets her new power simply rip, creating a cone free of acid directly in front of the ship. Maybe that'll help Finley manoeuver toward that rift.
Carol Danvers The nebula's other-worldly glow is soon joined by a brighter, whiter light alongside the ship as Captain Marvel catches back up again. A halo of cosmic energy surrounds her, and gathers at her hands as she moves right into blasting the area in front of the ship, taking out the floating globs of acid trying to keep any from getting through.

<<Watch out, sensing some getting through the hull,>> Carol warns, perhaps needlessly in response to a beep from her suit. She flies up 'above' the spacecraft, blasting the space there clear, then does a spiral around the Quinjet. Beams of photonic energy sizzle the acid spores away, boiling them off into the nothingness of the nebula.
Finley Ellison Sighing, Finley mutters to herself, "Something something swamp-rats." She grits her teeth and begins to guide them towards the nebula. She's so mentally engaged in navigation that she doesn't even notice the suit Ava shoves at her nor the small blob of acid hurtling towards her. But the the moment it touches her tacsuit, the nanites in her cells activate. She finds her body suddenly encased in flexible body armor suited to the environment, including an oxygen filtration system. She yelps. And then blinks. "Well," she says, her voice echoing inside her helmet, "that's, uh, new."

Good thing they'd found the original hanging code error and reprogrammed the little machines, or she'd be dead right now. Just like that Kree scientist and his exploded abdomen. She would be panicking right now, she wants to be panicking right now, but she's too busy trying to make it to their intended target. The surprise nanite gloves hamper her finesse somewhat.

<<Don't *you* die,>> she tells Ava, clumsily maneuvering the quinnjet towards the acid free space.
Michael Erickson     Where Michael stood, clad in his environment suit, there is a flash of violet light and a figure replaces him.. Red, molded metal, reminiscent of an anatomical model of the muscles underneath the skin. A visored helmet set with a long, v-shaped visor slit that crackles with the same energy as the diamond-shaped crystal set between the pectorals. The acid strikes the figure, hisses, bubbles. A thin smoke rises from the alloy where micrometers of metal are stripped away. Michael steps btween the acid and whatever crew remains in the ship, then, soaking up the chemical menace. << Helmets on, >> commands Erickson's voice, emitting from seemingly all over that strange metal body. << Do we have fire control canisters in here? Cold gas? >>
Darcy Lewis Darcy has a leg in, then another. She yanks the arms out of the way as Ghost phases out of the quinjet. The team is doing its thing, but there's a literal acid fight inside the ship now and she blinks as Finley is suddenly in armour. "Well...," she says as if put out, but clearly she's impressed. It's the moment for armour a Erickson is covered in his too.

She pokes her hands in to the gloves and then pulls on the helmet. A blob of green acid flies toward her and she dives out of the way. It hits the wall and sizzles, burning its way back out in to space. One down, several to go.

Darcy claws at the grate on the flooring of the quinjet and pulls it up. She yanks out what looks like a fire hose. "Better," she replies to Erickson, "Eat Sodium Metasilicate Anhydrous!" to anyone paying attention. She pulls the lever and starts to blast at the invading slimes with a white powder. This has the double effect of knocking them away from her but also neutralising them. Their quivering forms become dead.
Jessica Drew The grin is gone, heart hammering, Jessica doesn't look away from the targeting hologram though she desperately wants to know if Michael was hit. Eyes riveted on the readout, despite the cosmic-class defense flying before them in the form of Danvers and Starr. A few dollops of acid will do that to a person.

Over suit coms, <NO one is dying today. We didn't practice it. Michael, are you alright?">

Behind her the whoosh of air whistles a deadly tune accompanied by a blast of white powder filling the cabin before being siphoned off. The thrum of the Quin-jets mini-rail guns shudders through the craft as she fires at cubes approaching them on an oblique angle.
Michael Erickson     One must remember that Michael isn't /here/ -- he's far away in the depths of the Void, tethered by a conduit of technosorcery established eons ago when the Tree of Shadows was first planted in Null Space. Which is where he is now, trapped for the moment in his space suit, sitting in a crystal prison that hangs like ancient and terrible fruit from the tree's black branches. << Don't worry about me, Drew, >> he affirms, in the moment every bit the military man. << This is just the machine. Remember how much damage it an take. >> He aims to snatch at one of the acid blobs not dissolved, aiming to soak it into his armored 'palm'. Like he said, the suit will heal. He is happy to play a living shield for now.
Ava Starr When Carol takes over clearing the top of the craft from attack, Ava drops straight through the Q-jet, phasing between Darcy and Finley's seats, to the bottom of the craft. As she passes through the cockpit, she sees the nanite armour gleaming on her partner's body. "The hell?" The words are lost to the void as she disappears through the deckplating to re-emerge beneath the jet where she resumes pacing the spacejet.

Continuing to fire from that new vantage point, she works to ensure, as much as she can, that no more acid hits it from that vector. It means she's relying on Carol to keep that top hemisphere -- and the cockpit -- free of acid. Which means she's actually relying on a teammate. That's a lot more impressive than most people realize.
Carol Danvers More blasts of photonic energy cast shadows in the cockpit. The steady frequency of them speak to just many of the little acid spores are out there in the nebula. Though Carol wants a better look, shooting a few more quick blasts and then pausing a moment to try to sense what is out there. Her cosmic awareness doesn't always cooperate. Sometimes it seems to have a mind of its own almost. Though in this case, she gets at least a sense of just how much they are facing.

<<Best to keep going forward if you can. I don't know how much maneuverability these things have, but if they can change course very much, there's a lot out there that could start coming from all angles if they have enough time,>> she sends over comms.
Finley Ellison Thanks to the powerful cosmic heroes outside the ship, Finley is able to guide them towards the slice of light inside the nebula. But the acid spores gather closer, despite the impressive array of firepower.

<<Hang on everybody>> Finley announces, as she adds more fuel to their thrusters, increasing their velocity. Time to see what's on the other side of the rift.
Darcy Lewis Through the rift they arrive in a space between galaxies. It is dark and the only spots of light are very distant galaxies themselves rather than suns. It is an oppressive place to be for creatures born on planets, even those that fly amongst the stars.

The only light, besides the light generated from their own ship, is a gigantic glowing cube of green, slowly rotating. It is perhaps a several thousand kilometres across. Surrounding it are shimmering black cuts in space and from its flat surfaces, eruptions of tiny acid cubes spew forth through those black cuts.

Darcy turns to look out the cockpit window at the utterly ginormous space acid slime, "Holy crap burgers..." And then a void passes by like a ghost and Darcy's head flicks about wondering who said 'The hell?' at them. Sounded like Ava.

Sensing their presence, the giant cube of acid begins to spew out more slimes toward the quinjet. These ones, however, are plasma levels of hot so that they don't immediately freeze in the void of the space between space. It's like a space station firing thousands of automatic plasma rifle shots at them all at once.

Darcy rushes back to the jump controls and starts to type on the computer. "No lock. I don't know where we are... we have to wait for pulsar sync.. or may be Carol can identify where we are. Fin, I'm going to try and jump us around, keep us ahead of the plasma streams while you dodge."

There's a slight panic to her voice as she starts to do the maths. She looks back at the crew inside the ship and the crew outside the ship, <<"Any one got any bright ideas on how to stop this thing?? Carol? Ava??">> Oh how she wishes she could say 'shields up' right now but the quinjet doesn't have Star Trek technology.
Jessica Drew "Crap-burgers," Jess repeats under her breath with a grim smile. "That fits." Pitched to reach the others, she comments, "We need to fix a few holes for the integrity of the quinjet. Whose got putty we can whup into them from the inside?"

The size of the incoming attack resolving on her screen shuts down any banter. Darcy is ahead of her. She more than agrees with her, enthusiastically endorsing, "Jump! Unless we have shields that can withstand what's coming. Those jets are as hot as sun flares."

Jessica had missed the boat with gaming consoles as a kid. Super reflexes compensate for a childhood spent in a coma, and her teens spent learning how to kill people with her hands. An extraneous thought occurs to her. Using foot pedals and both hands to shoot weapons must be like playing a piano.

The railguns are barely cooled from the first round of firing before she is swiveling them to meet the oncoming jets. A deep sound reverberates through the quinjet as she fires the irradiated ammo into their attackers.
Ava Starr Finley flies the quinjet through the rift, Carol and Ava pacing it and doing their damnedest to shield it from the sudden uptick in acidic plasma spit. Ava can't help but pause just a heartbeat, however, as she realizes... That's no moon. That's a slime... "That's a fuckin' planet!"

As Fin takes almost immediate evasive maneuvers -- the woman does know how to fly and has flow combat before now (not just a pretty face) -- it's all Ava can do at first to keep up. Part of her desperately wants to phase the q-jet out of normal space and into quantum space, just to keep everyone safe. "<<How do you blow up a slime the size of the Death Star?>>" she retorts. "<<Please tell me you have missiles and not just rail guns!>>"

She's now throwing out her power, augmented by the q-bands, ahead of the ship, trying to act as a forward shield battery almost all on her own, while Carol continues shielding the rest of the ship.
Darcy Lewis Darcy starts mapping out a circular orbit of jumps around the gigantic cube. She looks as panicked as she feels. The computer screen flashes up a big red error: ~~WARNING: JUMP TOO SHORT, DISQUALIFIED~~ ... Darcy stares at the screen and says, "Disqualified??! We don't have time for disqualified!"

She pushes out of her chair and floats over to the 'Authorised Personnel' room and enters. At its centre is a vertical engine for jumping through space. Energy if flowing through it rapidly from the battery. She reaches in and yanks down a lever to disable the safeties.

With a VROMPHF and a Shudder the Quinjet is launched from point to point along an arc in orbit around the cube. A new eruption of plasma cubes is launched each time they re-appear; the cube is sensing them well.

Darcy floats back to her chair. "We can't hold this up for much longer," she says watching the heat gauge go up rapidly, "These jump drive wasn't made for short jumps - we're going to melt and be stuck out here forever."

She catches a look from Bird as he eyes the large container of alkaline and says, "Good theory, if only we had a LOT more of it..." She huffs a moment and her eyes turn back to the view port and says, <<"We have missiles. What are you thinking Ghost?">>
Jessica Drew If Jess knows anything about Cal'hatar it's that he will have a plan, likely involving detonating a large quantity of deadly explosives. While a plan is resolved on she is very occupied with tracking the wily plasma jets that are flung their way.

"Oh, do we have missiles but nothing big enough to punch a planet with. I don't think that planet-busting was on the agenda. We are carrying a big payload." Her hands move over the console. "Forty missiles with regular ordinance. Block busters."
Ava Starr Ava has no idea what the q-bands can really do. She has no idea just how much quantum and cosmic energy she can channel. She knows Captain Marvel packs a cosmic punch that's no joke. She soars up toward Carol, calling to her as she goes. "I can phase the jet. We can get closer. A *lot* closer. If you can supercharge the missiles and then shield the jet, I can phase them into the damned thing's heart. We can light it up like it's fuckin' Guy Fawkes Day."

Carol looks skeptical for a moment. She knows Ava is new to this whole cosmic hero thing. But she also knows that Ava's problem controlling her power is not with unleashing 'big power'. Ava is *really good* at overkill. The subtle, finessed stuff is her challenge. So, in the end, Carol concedes. It's a gamble, but it might be all they've got.

So, Ava phases into the jet, coming to stand in the middle of the cockpit, laying hands on the two front seats. "Fly straight at it, Fin," she tells her partner. "Trust me. Just like with the Milano. It won't touch us."

Fin's eyes grow wide, but she does as she's asked. She'll likely yell at Ava about it later.

"Drew," the English assassin says, glancing back to Jessica. "On my mark, launch every damned missile we have. Aim them all into the tightest cluster at its heart as you can manage. Danvers is going to supercharge them for us." Her expression tightens. "I'll make sure they get where they need to be without being intercepted before they get there."

Fin's head whips around at her. "Wait. What?!?" Finley isn't stupid. She knows the only way Ava will get those missiles in is to go *with* them.

"It won't touch me, either," the Ghost promises the pilot. "I promise, I'm coming back out..."

"You damned well better," Fin says darkly. Because, if Ava doesn't, Finley will find her, resurrect her, and kill her all over again.

Yeah. They're probably gonna be having a rather pointed discussion about all this later.
Jessica Drew Cal'hatar looms as he stands. "Not alone. We both can carry them into the heart of the thing. This," he gestures to himself, "will withstand a nuclear blast. We will go in together."

Only Drew's hands move as she acknowledges the order, "Copy that!"

A new vibration can be felt through the floor as the missile auto-loading system goes into operation. Below them racks of missiles slide into place behind the quadruple bays on either side of the jet. It is a state-of-the-art system capable of loading new payloads at three-second intervals.
Darcy Lewis Darcy grips the arms of her seat. Because this is batshit crazy and alls she can do is grit her teeth and hope for the best. At least the mask on her suit hides her chargrin expression; similar to the tone from Fin. As the quinjet phases and flies straight at the giant green gelatinous cube they pass through it without incident.

Inside, it is a a broiling plasma of acids interconnected, living, thinking. Some creatures are too alien, too hostile, to understand or be understood by such an ant-sized species like Humanity. In the grand scale of things, Humanity has no other choice but to kill or be killed by this monster.

Deep within the bowls of the planet sized acid snot they reach swirling and zapping electrical currents in the acids - this must be where it does its deep thinking. This is its heart. The missiles are away and Carol supes them up. The explosion would vaporize them all if they weren't phased.

The acids evaporate from the inside out and after a rocky moment,.. space becomes empty once more. The thin dark lines connecting this creature to its galactic conquests are gone. It's a disquieting reminder that out there in the deep of space life unlike any we can truly understand exists.. and probably wants to eat us.

Darcy shuts down the jump sequence and the heat and radiation levels start to drop back to normal. She takes a moment, looks around, most of the holes patched up by Bird already. <<"Is.. everyone alive still?">>
Ava Starr Ava's eyes close as she expends *a lot* of quantum energy to keep the ship and its occupants phased. She applies quantum thrust to both the jet, supercharging its speed, and, eventually, to the missiles when they're released, pushing them out of the bay faster than the built-in equipment can typically handle -- because phased is phased and she'll risk breaking a few servos to make sure the payload is released en masse.Carol does her thing. Munitions ignite. Fourth of July and Guy Fawkes Day got nothing on the violent death of a supersized minecraft slime.

All of which means, when the ship finally drifts in the emptiness of the aftermath of the giant, acidic explosion, and the need for her power has passed, Ava sags to her knees between the two front seats, fully solid. The jet is fully solid. Everything is fully solid. The q-bands are spent. And so is Ava.

"Ava!" Fin moves almost immediately to try to catch her.

The Ghost looks up at her, giving an exhausted half-smile. "Fly us the hell home," she tells her. "I'm just gonna have a little nap..." And she closes her eyes, slipping into unconsciousness -- at least until they get home.
Jessica Drew Part of the targeting console flashes red with error alerts and warning lights. Jessica pays it no mind, aware of having lived through a series of phase shifts that few mortals experience. The hair on her neck relaxes as she watches the computer sims, showing them the results of the Starr's, Danvers and Erickson's remarkable efforts.

G-Forces press her into her seat as the Quinjet, pushed to its mechanical limits, reorients into a new trajectory.

"Well. That was a set of fireworks worthy of a nova! Leave the flying to us, all of you. As soon as we are out of here, I'll get us all rations after you rest."
Darcy Lewis Darcy sits a touch dumb founded by the experience. The mention of rations shakes her out of her and she blinks, "Rations? Hell no I'm going straight to the cafeteria when we get back." A ding from the computer informs her they've picked up signals from known quasars all the way out here.

She looks over the readouts and stares in wonder, "Whoa. We're currently 7.2 megalightyears from home. That.. has to be a new record? right??" But now they have a fix on their location, she types in the commands for the jump drive and presses launch.

The void twists away with VWMOPF and they land, a slightly smoking heap, in the hanger bay underneath S.W.O.R.D. H.Q. Darcy remains seated for a little longer, just to make sure things are real and normal and okay.

"I have the biggest hankering for a burger," she says as she pulls off the helmet and shuts down the jump computer systems. With a flick of the switch the rear bay door lowers down its ramp so they can get in and out. SWORD engineers start to wander on board and are staring with horror at all the damage to their prized quinjet. Darcy pays them no mind as she walks past everyone with only one thing on her mind - food.