With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

Darko · Jun 28, 2020

TheEyes said:
It would be really rather dumb to start asserting independent authority in the middle of an operation.

Afterwards? I mean, yes, Batman and many of the other members of the Justice League (Lanterns Jordan and Stewart especially, but also the Hawks) are showing a remarkable amount of bias against Paul, given his power and proven track record of suggesting and implementing necessary reforms, both within the Justice League and without. If Paul wanted to make a point of it, he could probably get a number of League members to take his side if he attempted to make an issue of it, but maybe not, given that Paul himself has done rather little to soften his sometimes abrasive personality with anyone other than Wonder Woman.

The thing is, Paul himself has been mostly treading water since he came back from Vega, and it really shows. He's pulled back from trying to advance Earth's tech level, has mostly coasted along with few big moves in the past year on terms of making Atlantean magitech more widely available, and punted the issue of determining why Earth isn't advancing on its own over to Georgia Sivana months ago with no follow-up. In general he's downshifted into being the same sort of reactive personality that he had spent his first year lambasting the various members of the League for being; at this point, why should the League treat him as anything other than another random masked face-puncher, one with less than two years of experience under his belt?

The only GL that may be biased against Paul is Hal, the others are either on friendly or neutral terms with him.

He most likely doesn't feel it's necessary for him to get involved in every single technological advancement now that he's actually started a technological revolution. He wants other people to take initiative in advancing the planet and not depend on just one guy for it.

Giving the task to Georgia was also a smart thing considering she is a brilliant social scientist and he may still be communicating with her about it, albeit offscreen, but either she still hasn't found anything, or is focusing on the Sheeda problem right now and is going to do his project after they've been dealt with.

Mr Zoat · Jun 28, 2020

Darko said:
just 'further into' not 'into further into'
maybe 'some humans'
'think' not 'thing'

Thank you, corrected.

Z3r0Sama said:
At this point, Paul should really take a leaf out of Gravys book and start doing his own thing. Still being a tag along for the JL is just ridiculous.

I think the game's writers assumed that at this point the PC would have either been promoted, gone independent or gone villain and just rushed the 'stay with the team' plotting.

TheEyes said:
The thing is, Paul himself has been mostly treading water since he came back from Vega, and it really shows. He's pulled back from trying to advance Earth's tech level, has mostly coasted along with few big moves in the past year on terms of making Atlantean magitech more widely available, and punted the issue of determining why Earth isn't advancing on its own over to Georgia Sivana months ago with no follow-up. In general he's downshifted into being the same sort of reactive personality that he had spent his first year lambasting the various members of the League for being; at this point, why should the League treat him as anything other than another random masked face-puncher, one with less than two years of experience under his belt?

No he hasn't. He's been doing the same things, though perhaps this is my fault for not continuing to bring up examples other than Venturia.

nick012000 · Jun 28, 2020

SotF said:
Not necessarily, salvage rights are kind of messed up with regard for ships.

You could locate and claim the rights for a complete wreck, and you'll likely not get much if anything from it legally.

You can force the company/nation who owns it to pay you for the salvage costs, IIRC.

This is more likely to be relevant with Manga Khan's ship.

Handlewithcare · Jun 28, 2020

TheEyes said:
The thing is, Paul himself has been mostly treading water since he came back from Vega, and it really shows. He's pulled back from trying to advance Earth's tech level, has mostly coasted along with few big moves in the past year on terms of making Atlantean magitech more widely available, and punted the issue of determining why Earth isn't advancing on its own over to Georgia Sivana months ago with no follow-up. In general he's downshifted into being the same sort of reactive personality that he had spent his first year lambasting the various members of the League for being; at this point, why should the League treat him as anything other than another random masked face-puncher, one with less than two years of experience under his belt?

Well, right now his involvement is forcing everyone on earth to face the huge, gaping holes in their legislature regarding the reality of alien life.

That's a pretty massive political shift.

I'd call that progress.

(Also, Eris is probably jacking off over this)

Darko · Jun 28, 2020

Handlewithcare said:
(Also, Eris is probably jacking off over this)

I wonder if she met Stan Marsh.

TheEyes · Jun 28, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
No he hasn't. He's been doing the same things, though perhaps this is my fault for not continuing to bring up examples other than Venturia.

I mean, we can only see what we're shown. The last time I recall seeing Paul mention any sort of tech uplift was when he sent Leonard Snart over to Lex Luthor, despite knowing for months at that point that Lex is an unrepentant member of the Light and thus a terrible candidate to send someone with revolutionary tech to.Paul is supposed to be arbitrarily wealthy; why hasn't he founded his own non-profit tech incubator / angel investor / venture capital firm? So what if he doesn't know how to run such a company himself; there are any number of people who would be willing to take enough money to live on who would love to do that for him.

Instead, we've seen Paul tooling around with the Team playing whack-a-mole with the monster of the week, playing Warhammer exhibition games, wandering around through Gotham wondering why he's wasting time messing with their themed criminal scene, generally trying to reach through the fourth wall and press as many real-world political rage buttons as possible, etc. Even Paul doesn't know why he's doing this stuff, most of which is either idle entertainment or falling into the exact same kind of rut that he ridiculed the Justice League members for a year ago. How are we meant to look through the last few months in Paul's time and assume that he's actually doing more uplift work during the times he's not in the spotlight, when the times he is in the spotlight generally read like he's faffing around as a listless teenage trust-fund baby rather than doing anything important?

Rafin · Jun 28, 2020

Vaermina said:
As to causing a War, he's smart enough to know that's unavoidable now that Russia withdrew from the OST.

Breaking a treaty doesn't make war inevitable. If that were true Gree and Turkey would have had many more wars than they actually did. They violate each other's claimed sovereign waters and airspace constantly.

Darko · Jun 28, 2020

TheEyes said:
I mean, we can only see what we're shown. The last time I recall seeing Paul mention any sort of tech uplift was when he sent Leonard Snart over to Lex Luthor, despite knowing for months at that point that Lex is an unrepentant member of the Light and thus a terrible candidate to send someone with revolutionary tech to.Paul is supposed to be arbitrarily wealthy; why hasn't he founded his own non-profit tech incubator / angel investor / venture capital firm? So what if he doesn't know how to run such a company himself; there are any number of people who would be willing to take enough money to live on who would love to do that for him.

Instead, we've seen Paul tooling around with the Team playing whack-a-mole with the monster of the week, playing Warhammer exhibition games, wandering around through Gotham wondering why he's wasting time messing with their themed criminal scene, generally trying to reach through the fourth wall and press as many real-world political rage buttons as possible, etc. Even Paul doesn't know why he's doing this stuff, most of which is either idle entertainment or falling into the exact same kind of rut that he ridiculed the Justice League members for a year ago. How are we meant to look through the last few months in Paul's time and assume that he's actually doing more uplift work during the times he's not in the spotlight, when the times he is in the spotlight generally read like he's faffing around as a listless teenage trust-fund baby rather than doing anything important?

After he did all that stuff in Gotham he seemed to find it odd that he wasn't able to care all that much about the city and tried to view himself using his powers to see if he was tampered with, but found nothing.

This could either mean that someone has found a way to manipulate him without his senses being able to pick it up, or that a shitty city like Gotham just tired him out.

He may have also recommended that Snart work for Lex because his other offer came from Alva, who has a habit of screwing over his employees, while the Lex in this story treats his employees pretty well.

He may have also had more faith in Lex then than he does now.

Him also engaging in traditional superhero work isn't exactly bad since he's managed to stop several threats by doing said work, like Devlos Ungol and Abin's son who wanted to bring a fleet of ships to a criminal group. Him playing uplift all the time on Earth may have allowed those two to get away.

The reason why he doesn't create his own company is because he believes that the groups that can do his work already exist and he just wants to give them a push instead of having the planet depend on him to solve all of their problems. After he released his Bleed Generators other companies released their own advanced energy production machines.

As to how you can know that he is doing uplift work when it isn't shown, well for that you have to have faith in the author and his character that they're still doing that, and they wouldn't abandon their main goal.

The reason it may not be shown all that much is because most people may become bored with a story that just focuses on that, while fights tend to get us more excited.

You may want the story to be focused mostly on uplift, but many others may want it to have fighting in it because people tend to be more interested in watching fights than hearing things like scientific lectures.

The previous episodes, the ones before he came back from Vega, also mostly focused on him getting involved in traditional superhero work instead of uplift projects. There were projects like that included in those episodes, but they were a minority, albeit an important one.

Even when he got back from Vega he engaged in uplift work that we saw on page, like advising those Gnomes on how they can become citizens of Switzerland and use their magic to their benefit, preventing the Gordanians from getting exterminated, making the Alignment soldiers more honorable, making Mars more habitable, making Hell more hospitable and getting the Angels to think about eating a fruit from the Tree of Knowledge etc.

All of these things were uplift works that were found in episodes that involved traditional superhero work.

As for him supposedly wasting time playing card games instead of doing these things 24/7, do remember that people can have hobbies that don't revolve around their jobs.

Paul has already opened the floodgates and people on Earth are adopting more advanced tech now so he doesn't feel the need to get involved in every single instance, while previously they just sat on their tech and did nothing, so he felt the need to intervene more.

moralrelativity · Jun 28, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
Some custom laws

custom laws -> customs laws

Mr Zoat · Jun 28, 2020

moralrelativity said:
custom laws -> customs laws

Thank you, corrected.

Someguy Somewhere · Jun 28, 2020

OL's work with Ted Kord, Oliver Queen, The Chocolate company preventing Kraft's takeover, the Video Game company he's worked up for the Vega thing are ongoing projects that, for the most part don't actually need him directly involved on a day to day thing, mostly a few emails and leaving it to people that do that sort of thing for a living. The Transportation hub in London has little to do with him and more to do with Atlantis and the Think Tank down there.

I mentioned a while back that, yes Paul could be doing the whole improving himself with science and tech, but it's far more effective to just phone a friend to get experts and powersets needed rather then try to uplift himself into being the perfect swiss army knife.

Part of having those friends, and having the public on his side to have the political and social will to do things for him when he calls is being seen as doing the hero thing. He does have to go out and fly the flag a bit.

Reputation Grinding is a game mechanic in play here.

Also face punching for goodness is Relaxing, compared to eldritch horrors and galactic warfare which is what he usually gets called in to deal with.

Khornelius · Jun 28, 2020

Darko said:
I was thinking of dealing with him as more like a teammate.

Remember that Paul can assimilate people and renegade was able to assimilate Savage.

Sorry got delayed a bit in RL.

Okay the first option not a bad one. Deadpool has been shown in the past has tried to be a better person/hero for the sake of those who he respects, like Spider-Man or captain America.

the second option, should work in theory, but this is Deadpool. The guys has regenerated and healed from some of the craziest and dumbest things over the years. Paul might have to continually re-assimilate him, because Deadpool's body keeps regenerating from it. Plus unlike Savage's regeneration it's possible for there to be more than one Deadpool, as when a bunch of his discarded body parts were put in the same bag they fused into a second Deadpool.

Darko · Jun 28, 2020

Khornelius said:
Sorry got delayed a bit in RL.

Okay the first option not a bad one. Deadpool has been shown in the past has tried to be a better person/hero for the sake of those who he respects, like Spider-Man or captain America.

the second option, should work in theory, but this is Deadpool. The guys has regenerated and healed from some of the craziest and dumbest things over the years. Paul might have to continually re-assimilate him, because Deadpool's body keeps regenerating from it. Plus unlike Savage's regeneration it's possible for there to be more than one Deadpool, as when a bunch of his discarded body parts were put in the same bag they fused into a second Deadpool.

If he assimilated his soul then the regeneration may not work anymore.

Though yeah considering this is Wade he most likely will come back from that.

Coda · Jun 28, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
It's main reactors

Its

Mr Zoat said:
an explosive trap anyway, we'll still need to detain

semicolon

Mr Zoat said:
half-way

halfway

Mr Zoat said:
extra-planetary

extraplanetary, usually

Vaermina said:
See, interesting fact, without the legal protections of the OST, sovereign airspace comes into effect in concerns to orbits.

Even without the treaty, no other sovereign power will acknowledge airspace claims above the Karman line.

Vaermina · Jun 28, 2020

Darko said:
Firstly, I think that Zoat mentioned they still haven't withdrawn from the treaty and were just planning on doing it and encouraging others to do it.

Withdrawing from the treaty would not cause a war to break out, especially since even if the Russians withdrew from it before they sent those ships they didn't exactly break any of its rules, like no WMD on them, or claiming space as your own sovereign territory, all they wanted was to establish contact with the Cluster ship, which is a peaceful thing to do and allowed under the treaty.

The various countries of the Earth really have no justification for starting a war with Russia, and why would they want to considering that Russia is one of the most powerful countries on the planet. The most many could hope for is that Russia starts an exchange program where they can share tech.

Yes the US has many superheroes and metas, but Russia has large armies, as well as advanced tech like the Rocker Red suits.

Americas metahuman development program may not be as advanced in the paragon timeline as it's advanced in the renegade timeline because they've developed a reliance on the League for these sorts of things and see no further need to advance.

They withdrew before they launched.

And you seem to be forgetting the legal limitations of orbital satellites without the OST to protect a country from violating another's air space.

Also you might want to go back and rewatch Young Justice, because they are above real life military levels.

Darko · Jun 28, 2020

Vaermina said:
They withdrew before they launched.

And you seem to be forgetting the legal limitations of orbital satellites without the OST to protect a country from violating another's air space.

Also you might want to go back and rewatch Young Justice, because they are above real life military levels.

If they withdrew from the treaty before they launched then they didn't break any laws.

Pretty sure that they weren't violating anyone's air space, so no consequences there.

If you mean that the metas are above real life military levels then you seem to be forgetting that Zoat has stated multiple times that most metahumans aren't that powerful and that even an ordinary human, albeit one with training, can take them on and win.

Mr Zoat · Jun 28, 2020

Coda said:
Its
semicolon
halfway
extraplanetary, usually

Thank you, corrected.

Even without the treaty, no other sovereign power will acknowledge airspace claims above the Karman line.

The Russian fleet hasn't gotten as far as Mars yet. This is a joke.

Vaermina · Jun 28, 2020

Darko said:
If they withdrew from the treaty before they launched then they didn't break any laws.

Pretty sure that they weren't violating anyone's air space, so no consequences there.

You don't know how orbit's work, do you?

http://stuffin.space/?search=cosmos

Those are some of the Russian military satellites.

Without the OST, everyone single one of them is an effective act of war since they pass through other countries airspace. See the OST isn't just some sort of "you can't have nukes in space" agreement, it's the legal framework of international space law.

If you mean that the metas are above real life military levels then you seem to be forgetting that Zoat has stated multiple times that most metahumans aren't that powerful and that even an ordinary human, albeit one with training, can take them on and win.

No... The young justice American military is above real life military levels...

Darko · Jun 29, 2020

Vaermina said:
No... The young justice American military is above real life military levels...

If they are above real life military levels then it's a safe bet to assume that the Russians are at least their equals on military matters, so it would be stupid of the US to declare war.

Mr Zoat · Jun 29, 2020

12th April
11:36 GMT

Pluto's not all that big.

I mean, it's still 13 sextillion kilograms in mass and has five minimoons, but as planets go that's nothing. I've seen super-earths and gas giants close up… Heck, at least three of Krypton's chunks are bigger than Pluto.

But that's still a very big laser.

"Lantern Khan, what's that?"

"Mining laser?"

"That wasn't there when I scanned the ClusterShip when it arrived."

"We didn't have one. No, no, we totally didn't-."

"Lantern Khan."

"-have one externally mounted. We had small and medium demonstration models in the heavy machinery department in case someone wanted to buy them. ClusterCorp has a very strong don't-kill-people-who-can-give-us-money policy. Besides. The beam attenuation anywhere with an atmosphere is terrible. Otherwise you can be sure that we'd-"

"Charge a lot more?" / "-charge a lot more."

I turn to look at Major Adams.

"Sir, shall I forcibly shut it down?"

"What would that do to the people on the ship?"

"There's no such thing as a non-lethal weapon, but that's not exactly cutting edge technology-"

"Miningonanaffordablebudget!"

"-there and I can hit a pinhead from a billion miles away. I should be able to destroy it with minimal collateral damage. On the other hand-."

"Nobody's actually in any danger because no one lives on Pluto."

I nod. "Plus, since we know the layout of that ball section's power grid, we have the knowledge required to shut it down from inside."

"What exactly are they shooting-"

"Mining!"

"-at?"

"The feature doesn't have a name. Studying Pluto is rather hard for Earth-based astronomers."

"Are you certain there's nothing down there?"

I crank up my empathic vision so high that I start getting vague impressions from the next inhabited planet along my sight line.

"If there's anyone down there, one, they're having a very bad time due to mining laser, and two, they're using the-. "

There's a tiny orange twinkle, which… Vanishes almost immediately.

"Huh."

"See something?"

"For a moment, I saw a desire. It wasn't.. really.. focused on anything. Though that could just have been because there was a momentary gap in the disguise spells. I'm not picking up anything other than a large hole on the surface." I shake my head. "Sorry, not getting anything else."

He nods.

"We'll breach the hull near the laser and go from there. Lantern Khan, Lantern Koriand'r, we haven't worked together before, but I want to be clear that we're trying to keep as many people alive as possible."

Koriand'r nods.

"I have studied the tales of the Justice League's heroism. I know your rules of engagement."

"Training new employees is expensive. Our insurers always increase our premiums when we claim for lost work-hours."

I turn to-

"Are there any corporations on Earth which offer starship insurance? I'm asking for a friend."

-the ClusterShip and transition forward, crumbler construct disrupting the shields and smashing into the hull. I generate an airlock construct just in case the emergency atmospheric regulator isn't working. Shots from the interior -mostly plasma-based- strike my constructs at once, but with nothing like enough force to significantly damage them. The interior of this part of the 'ball' of the ClusterShip has clearly seen a lot of very rapid engineering work; the mining laser is exposed directly to vacuum and the ship-side of the arrangement looks like they've just cut through the decks until they had enough space. Dozens of crew members in space suits are attempting to advance, though it looks like ClusterCorp decided not to overspend on flight systems.

A dozen species with different tolerances for electricity and atmospheres, fighting in a vacuum.

"Blue Lantern. Catching duty."

"Ready when you are."

Filaments flicker out, punching through unshielded civilian spacesuits and apply species-specific knockout gasses while simultaneously disarming them. Guns get chucked away and our new prisoners are thrown towards open space, where Alan catches them in a Looney Tunes cage-construct.

He needs to spend less time with Guy.

Lantern Khan flies past me, a construct hemisphere protecting him from incoming fire as he flies for the mining laser's controls.

"I'm garnishing your wages for this, all of you!"

Well familiar with murderous pirates, Koriand'r scans the inner hull for scuttling charges or other booby traps, shooting out the handful of functioning internal defences as they deploy. Adams hangs back slightly; his energy blasts don't have a 'stun' setting and would be massive overkill for soft targets like this.

I chuck the last 'guard' at Alan just as Khan shuts down the mining laser. Okay. That wasn't too bad. I look out through the ersatz firing port and down at the planet. There are some pretty violent dwarf planet quakes going on down there, lines of stress radiating away from the point of impact.

I frown. That's a little odd… But it's not as if anyone's ever done a really detailed geological survey of Pluto.

I punch probes through the sealed doors abutting this section-.

"More people on the other side of those doors. They're ClusterCorp employees and they've got runic cuts on their faces in the shape of a star."

Major Adams grimaces.

"I don't know magic. Is that conclusive proof that this was the Star Conquerors?"

"Sadly, no, but it's very suggestive. Lantern Khan, is there anything useful on their targeting computer?"

"I'm the CEO! I don't know how things work!"

Fair enough.

"Captain Atom, where would you like us to breach?"

Whenever Possible · Jun 29, 2020

If this turns out to be Satanus trying to corrupt Pluto and open a portal to hell instead of the star conquerors, Paul is gonna have to recruit Doom Guy

Handlewithcare · Jun 29, 2020

Khan is hilarious.

And Pluto a Star Conqueror.

Bummer.

Queshire · Jun 29, 2020

Oh fuck. I've played Cthulutech before. Nothing good can come out of this.

Belenus · Jun 29, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
There are some pretty violent dwarf planet quakes going on down there, lines of stress radiating away from the point of impact.

I frown. That's a little odd… But it's not as if anyone ever done a really detailed geological survey of Pluto.

If a Mass Relay pops out, I'm leaving.

Vaermina · Jun 29, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
"Nobody's actually in any danger because no one lives on Pluto."

The Andromedans would disagree.

"Are there any corporations on Earth which offer starship insurance? I'm asking for a friend."

Actually yes, there is.

Darko · Jun 29, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
knowledge requires

'required'

Mr Zoat said:
; he energy blasts

' ,his energy'

Mr Zoat said:
if anyone ever done

'anyone's ever done'

Mr Zoat said:
I punch probes

maybe 'launch' instead of 'punch' , but I could be wrong.

Vaermina said:
The Andromedans would disagree.

They probably don't exist in the Earth 16 universe, and why would aliens that live in the Milky Way call themselves 'Andromedans'?

Chojin Patriarch · Jun 29, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
12th April
11:36 GMT

Pluto's not all that big.

I mean, it's still 13 sextillion kilograms in mass and has five minimoons, but as planets go that's nothing. I've seen super-earths and gas giants close up… Heck, at least three of Krypton's chunks are bigger than Pluto.

At least you're calling it a Planet. Poor Pluto, ignored because it's the baby of the solar system...

But that's still a very big laser.

"Lantern Khan, what's that?"

"Mining laser?"

...Yes, we can see that. Any details? Like, effective range, estimated kiloton-equivalant yield?

"That wasn't there when I scanned the ClusterShip when it arrived."

"We didn't have one. No, no, we totally didn't-."

So, the suborned crew dragged it out of storage, bolted it to the hull, and wired it up when they weren't looking. It must be a hell of a kludge to be vibrating the entire hull...

"Lantern Khan."

"-have one externally mounted. We had small and medium demonstration models in the heavy machinery department in case someone wanted to buy them. ClusterCorp has a very strong don't-kill-people-who-can-give-us-money policy. Besides. The beam attenuation anywhere with an atmosphere is terrible. Otherwise you can be sure that we'd-"

Have put it in the weapons showroom?

"Charge a lot more?" / "-charge a lot more."

So predictable.

I turn to look at Major Adams.

"Sir, shall I forcibly shut it down?"

Can you do it safely? Without killing anyone in the vicinity?

"What would that do to the people on the ship?"

"There's no such thing as a non-lethal weapon, but that's not exactly cutting edge technology-"

"Miningonanaffordablebudget!"

Shush, Khan, the adults are talking. This is no time for a sales pitch.

"-there and I can hit a pinhead from a billion miles away. I should be able to destroy it with minimal collateral damage. On the other hand-."

"Nobody's actually in any danger because no one lives on Pluto."

...That anyone knows of... It'd be kind of embarrassing to discover a new population by detonating a small nuke overhead.

I nod. "Plus, since we know the layout of that ball section's power grid, we have the knowledge requires to shut it down from inside."

"What exactly are they shooting-"

"Mining!"

And people think OL is pedantic?

"-at?"

"The feature doesn't have a name. Studying Pluto is rather hard for Earth-based astronomers."

Not named yet. Joy of time travel SIs.

"Are you certain there's nothing down there?"

I crank up my empathic vision so high that I start getting vague impressions from the next inhabited planet along my sight line.

And... How many lightyears is that? Damn.

"If there's anyone down there, one, they're having a very bad time due to mining laser, and two, they're using the-. "

There's a tiny orange twinkle, which… Vanishes almost immediately.

...Fuck. The Star Conqueror isn't on Charon!

"Huh."

"See something?"

Don't dismiss it out of hand, OL. Anything could be significant here!

"For a moment, I saw a desire. It wasn't.. really.. focused on anything. Thought that could just have been because there was a momentary gap in the disguise spells. I'm not picking up anything other than a large hole on the surface." I shake my head. "Sorry, not getting anything else."

Oh, crap... And none of them have any idea anything's there...

He nods.

"We'll breach the hull near the laser and go from there. Lantern Khan, Lantern Koriand'r, we haven't worked together before, but I want to be clear that we're trying to keep as many people alive as possible."

No fear of that, Kori is very much the wholesome lifesaver type. Sure, she can kick posterior like no-one else, but she'd much rather save lives.

Koriand'r nods.

"I have studied the tales of the Justice League's heroism. I know your rules of engagement."

"Training new employees is expensive. Our insurers always increase our premiums when we claim for lost work-hours."

...Damn, I hope someone smacks him in the head...

I turn to-

"Are there any corporations on Earth which offer starship insurance? I'm asking for a friend."

Shush! Honestly, Manga Khan is such a pain... And no, no sane insurance agency would offer that. <reads Vaermina's comment> Huh.

-the ClusterShip and transition forward, crumbler construct disrupting the shields and smashing into the hull. I generate a airlock construct just in case the emergency atmospheric regulator isn't working. Shots from the interior -mostly plasma-based- strike my constructs at once, but with nothing like enough force to significantly damage them. The interior of this part of the 'ball' of the ClusterShip has clearly seen a lot of very rapid engineering work; the mining laser is exposed directly to vacuum and the ship-side of the arrangement looks like they've just cut through the decks until they had enough space. Dozens of crew members in space suits are attempting to advance, though it looks like ClusterCorp decided not to overspend on flight systems.

Like I said, a kludge. Evidently the Chaos Starros, if that's who're responsible, have no patience or concern for their slaves' safety.

A dozen species with different tolerances for electricity and atmospheres, fighting in a vacuum.

"Blue Lantern. Catching duty."

This won't be all that difficult. Lanterns own at space-combat operations.

"Ready when you are."

Filaments flicker out, punching through unshielded civilian spacesuits and apply species-specific knockout gasses while simultaneously disarming them. Guns get chucked away and our new prisoners are thrown towards open space, where Alan catches them in a Looney Tunes cage-construct.

Ah, nothing like the classics. And as I thought, not a threat amongst them.

He needs to spend less time with Guy.

Lantern Khan flies past me, a construct hemisphere protecting him from incoming fire as he flies for the mining laser's controls.

I hope his anthropoid shell is rated as combat-grade armour. Not that anything aboard could pierce an environmental shield.

"I'm garnishing your wages for this, all of you!"

Well familiar with murderous pirates, Koriand'r scans the inner hull for scuttling charges or other booby traps, shooting out the handful of functioning internal defences as they deploy. Adams hangs back slightly; he energy blasts don't have a 'stun' setting and would be massive overkill for soft targets like this.

And he isn't much use as a shield, either. Too much energy and he warps out.

I chuck the last 'guard' at Alan just as Khan shuts down the mining laser. Okay. That wasn't too bad. I look out through the ersatz firing port and down at the planet. There are some pretty violent dwarf planet quakes going on down there, lines of stress radiating away from the point of impact.

I frown. That's a little odd… But it's not as if anyone ever done a really detailed geological survey of Pluto.

Something for the future Russian spacefleet's scientific endeavours.

I punch probes through the sealed doors abutting this section-.

"More people on the other side of those doors. They're ClusterCorp employees and they've got runic cuts on their faces in the shape of a star."

Crud. That explains how they're controlling them and how they're concealing them.

Major Adams grimaces.

"I don't know magic. Is that conclusive proof that this was the Star Conquerors?"

Eh... Until we see one flapping about, I'd go with sleeper agents.

"Sadly, no, but it's very suggestive. Lantern Khan, is there anything useful on their targeting computer?"

"I'm the CEO! I don't know how things work!"

Well, isn't that just prime.

Fair enough.

"Captain Atom, where would you like us to breach?"

At least the cleanup will be quick. The crew are wildly outclasses.

Now, how long until whatever they were digging up realizes it's got an opening? Because it's pretty clear by now, this was all about waking up something big on Pluto...

Thought that could just have been...

Though that could just have been...

Darko · Jun 29, 2020

Chojin Patriarch said:
Well, isn't that just prime

Hey, at least he's honest about it.

Cuchulin · Jun 29, 2020

Well... at least they didn't run into any Mi-Go or anything.

Ace Dreamer · Jun 29, 2020

Cuchulin said:
Well... at least they didn't run into any Mi-Go or anything.

I tend to feel you should add the word 'yet' on the end of this sentence...

Smart thing to do here, which I doubt they'll do, is get all Orange Lanterns on-site to collaborate on creating the biggest Cold Ray construct anyone has ever WANTED to exist, and blasting the area the laser has been targetting.

Someone has been trying to pump energy in there? Cooling the area down seems unlikely to do any further harm, and, you can sort any issues out later, with some carefully localised defrosting. Is there a Starro there? Cooling has a good history of giving them a bad day.

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