7th January 2004
16:40 GMT
Lights... Dance before my eyes.
Good work, Corpsman. Your approach to the task showed considerable resolve, marred by only a single instance of pleading. An entirely satisfactory performance.
I slump back on the floor, the sharpened chunk of deck plate falling from my hand. U-huh-hurr. At least one of us is happy. I take a moment to look down at the glowing hole in my abdomen. Ring. Did I get it all?
The constructs currently holding your insides together are detecting attempts at regeneration throughout the site of the injury. Further analysis will have to wait. Your next step-.
Form construct-replicas of my organs, link them to my organic components and keep the Thanagarians from hitting it again.
Your nervous system is resisting any attempt at interfacing and your guts don't generate enough fear to overcome it. Furthermore, I feel that the pain you are currently experiencing will prove to be an excellent aid to memory.
What? No, never mind. Scan immediate environment. Anyone coming?
Yes.
I get a quick mental picture of another marine group heading... I turn my head to look at the door to the captain's promenade. Right. This is going to hurt more. I grit my teeth and lean forwards, putting my right foot flat on the floor. Akh! I squeeze my eyes shut for a moment and take a couple of deep breaths. Up! Get UP! Armour, put my armour back on. And the construct armour in case they have a radion blaster. Now up!
I lean forwards and plant my- Owowow -right hand on the deck. I push up into a crouch- Raaaagh -then take a few breaths. Don't have long. I lean right a little and push- Rrrrrehhhh. –up, getting upright and gently putting my left foot on the ground. Not putting.. any weight on it. But I need to look like I'm unhurt. It's a little hard to tell given how different people here look compared to how they looked in the cartoon, but-.
The door slides open and another set of Thanagarian marines fly through, guns in hand. Yellow light flares from my eyes, jinking around the front rank's shields and stabbing into the flesh beyond.
"Ahh!" / "YAAAAGH!"
Yeah, we're past the point of talking. Huh, not seeing-. One gets a shot off with a rifle-sized energy weapon of some kind and it hits home-. The site of my injury is glowing brighter than the rest. It's drawing their attention! Okay, okay, it won't actually hurt as long as the construct armour stays up.
"Gah!"
The next marine out of the door flies straight at me with some kind of lance. I knock the point aside with the back of my right gauntlet, letting my Apokoliptian armour absorb the weak energy discharge before grabbing its wielder around the throat with my left hand and squeezing until I hear a crack. A filament grabs the x-ionised scalpel from the floor before flicking it at the next shield-bearing marine. It embeds in the shield and then explodes in a blast of brilliant white energy as the x-ionisation effect reacts vigorously with the energy reflection technology. Have to remember that some metamaterials don't play nicely together.
"Uh."
Corpsman-.
Yes, I've seen them. I couldn't hope to keep the barrier I had over the front of the bridge up while I was cutting into myself and the Thanagarians are only too happy to use it as an entry point. I form a minigun turret behind me and spray enough fire in their direction to force them to keep back as I charge forwards. A half-blinded but still oncoming marine has no time to react and I grab her around the head with my right hand and mash her face into the wall. Ring, chlorine gas.
Transmutation underway.
Thin wisps of yellow-green vapour start to appear around me. Power output is based on fear. I'm not going to get all that much until people without breathing equipment start trying to fly after me and realise what I'm doing. Hopefully as the acid melts their lungs. Honestly, when I owowow. Right. Little more care. I get inside the doorway as the next marine appears, his eyes widening as he spots the gas. When I get control of a space faring military, everyone will wear fully protective gear while in a combat zone. He tries aiming his rifle with his right hand while shielding his mouth and nose with his left. I jab him through the gut with a construct-blade.
"Akgh..."
That's more like it. I grab his gun as he collapses and my follow up eyebeams disintegrate his throat. I increase my pace to the fastest walk I can without causing flashing lights to impair my vision. That appears to be.. all of the squad they had assigned to this corridor. I feel a tiny tremor of feedback as one of the marines in the bridge destroys my minigun turret. Fine. Ring, suggestions?
Thanagarians typically operate with short chains of command, and senior officers like to be nearer the action than is entirely sensible. Personally confronting and slaying Commander Talak would most likely cause their military response to fall into disarray. Alternately, destroying the primary generator-.
I take a moment to calculate the likely effect of a highly energetic blast surrounded by Nth metal occurring inside a planet's atmosphere. No.
The ship's primary weapon battery can be used to destroy the hyperspatial bypass structure. The weapons can be accessed directly or via the primary computer core.
I hear a yelp from behind me as the marines try flying through the chlorine, and a corresponding increase in the production of the gas around me. Ring, locate Talak. If he's outside the ship...
Commander Talak appears to be directing the assault from a command station a short distance from here.
A picture forms in my head of him, Kragger and a small squad of marines... Ah, there's the gas masks. Okay, map? Okay, this shouldn't...
Wait a second. Am I..? Ring, if all of the officers are dead, exactly who was going to give the evacuation order?
What purpose would an evacuation serve? Corpsman, you may be wounded but you are not crippled. It is not beyond your abilities to kill everyone in the Thanagarian flotilla. Then you can proceed with your plan to inspire the creation of a force to protect the Earth by posing as a threat yourself.
Ring, I don't want to kill all those people. Not if there's a halfway sensible alternative.
A sub-par choice under the circumstances.
I'm wearing a recording of your brain on my finger. I think I'll make the strategic decisions. What sort of access to their computer systems can I get from-
Incoming message from Lantern Stewart.
-here?
Basic, to say the least. Warships are not designed to be 'hack friendly', Corpsman.
Internal communications?
Yes.
Put John on.
"Grayven, what the hell are you doing? Nightwing just-."
"Your president is an Apokoliptian robot. Given how fast the pro-SHADE agenda has advanced since the Lords lost power I suspect that the original was killed and replaced by SHADE. A detailed analysis of his body language could probably tell you exactly when it happened. If you've got the time you should probably check up on his family."
"My God. Okay, Shayera's on it. Where are you now?"
"Thanagarian Command Carrier. Listen, does the Watchtower have the ability to broadcast to the whole of the Earth?"
"We can override channels but SHADE will probably block us if we do it for too long."
"Okay, I can work with that. Stand by to transmit."
