System Crash

[legionnpcs]

[After Brainy and Babbage disappear, cameras start broadcasting from where they were taken to. The entire encounter is shown to the team and the rest of the UP. When Earth is taken through the portal, Legion World lurches, and at the end of it all, when the traps are tripped, it lurches again. Lights all over the ship go out, fires starts, systems fail. Only lockdown procedures that Brainy himself put in place, to protect Legion World’s most vital systems if he were ever compromised by telepathy or other influences, keep the viruses from self-destructing the ship or turning off life support -- but they’re certainly trying to.]

[The network goes back up again fairly quickly, however, but it’s using a much older, inferior form of networking. Something a little more distance-based and analog, a little less hackable.]

[They’ll be able to communicate again, but there’s a lot of interference. Sometimes the video goes out during video calls and sometimes audio cracks up. Text seems to be the only form of communication that’s guaranteed to go through every time.]

[ooc: People can react and start planning things on this post. This is also where information about the Spectre's attack will get dropped.]

Comments

[voice]

[steelandtemper]

[SHE KNEW BABBAGE WAS TOO BORING TO BE REAL SHE KNEW IT.

But there are other things to worry about now, and if Cortana is affected by the horror show, it doesn't come through in her voice.]

Network integrity is...well, you don't want to know. I have multiple instances of myself on damage control, but I cannot guarantee comms are secure. Reactors and life support are stable for the moment. Working on getting monitoring and the T-gates back on line.

[Of course there will be a major emergency that needs Legion assistance. There is always a major emergency when you least want one.]

The telepathic earplugs might become unreliable. I'm pushing a translation program to everyone's omnicomms. Not as smooth, but much more robust.

[Everything she says is echoed in a text file that comes attached.]

[On UNSC/Freelancer comms:] I think we're secure here. I might see about moving people over to UNSC protocols if I can't get the Legion comms nailed down.

UNSC

[unrecovered]

Good idea.

[And then, because he'd interacted with "Babbage" personally on more than one occasion and paranoia's a bitch:] I know you have Chief locked down, but how do the rest of us know our armor is secure?

[He says, while in his armor, because a call to arms from Kid Q means armoring up.]

[relativityspeaking]

If you can't get this secure, do you think you have the capacity to set up another network or appropriate equipment that some of your displacees came in with for that use?

[Kid Q is already thinking like Cortana. Some of these armor guys have network-capable suits, and plenty of Legionnaires came in with equipment like comms. It's possible someone has something encrypted to hell and back in a way that the AIs can fortify.]

UNSC

[nofortunateson]

Thanks, Cortana. Anything Theta or I can do to help on that front?

[If North's voice sounds strained, it's just the fact that while this isn't the worst freakout Theta's ever had, it's definitely in the top three, and number one was legitimately incapacitating. He's breathing slow against the panicked bleedthrough of no no can't no no please no no no no no spiking behind his eyes and sending his pulse racing, and as soon as he's off comms it's going to be right back to whatever he can do to try to calm him down so they can both do their jobs. Whatever they can actually do against an incursion on this scale.]

[voice]

[agnominal]

Is evacuation an option?

[ If worse comes to worse and life support does fail. ]

UNSC

[goddamngrenades]

Tell us what you need. [ Delta's-


York isn't touching that. He's got D plugged in and is trying to get some kind of grasp on exactly how fucked they are other than thoroughly. Any backup he can give the queen of code is the best he can swing. ]

We are here to assist.

Re: [voice]

[rushing_by]

Anyplace we can use superspeed and vibration intangibility? I do have more than a little experience with rescue work.

[relativityspeaking]

[Kid Q had been in the Mission Monitor Room when everything had hit the fan, and after a few minutes pass and the comes go back up, when she comes back on the screen (which is now filled with static), an explosion is suspended in the air, wrapped in one of her yellow quantum bubbles]

[Smoke from shattered consoles and screens rises around her, and she coughs as she reverses time on the explosion until it's a bomb again, and then degrades the components by aging them a thousand years in an instant, until they crumble into dust.]

Report! Do we have any casualities?

[One of the techs says, "We're getting reports of injuries, but no fatalities so far. But there are system outages everywhere, virus attacks, damage to the hull..." ]

[She staggers over to the viewscreen, looking at one of the monitors and digging through what little information is there.]

I need our gearheads on this now. Brainy's emergency override system shut down the usual omnicom network and shifted it to something less functional but easier to secure. But we need to do all we can to make our comms even more secure.

Private (as much as the backup system will allow)

[araignee_du_soir]

[And here was the other emotionless person around, clearly loading her sniper rifle with lethal ammunition.]

Once their location is known, shall I eliminate the Braniac enemies, Commandant?

[headinjuries]

[ Sam is calling in from...outside? Sure looks that way. He's got his helmet on, and there's stars behind him and some debris floating around - though it might be vaguely recognizable that some of that stuff used to be in one of the hangars. ]

Number 351 airlock is breached. It looks like the next door in sealed off in time, but if anyone was in the hangar when that happened, um.

[ He really hopes nobody else was in there. He hadn't seen anybody but he's well aware that doesn't mean there wasn't. ]

[video]

[the_civilian]

[Judging by the angle of the shot, the communication panels installed on the walls are still working, if barely. Tadashi is pale and glassy-eyed and sweating in the flickering light of the corridor, concentrating on something off-screen. He seems to have hit the 'on' button for the panel with his elbow, because both of his hands are extended in the direction of his concentration.]

I-I'm by the Mess Hall on level eight, corridor H-twelve. There's a fire. I th-think I have it contained, but there are people trapped and I can-can't get to them.

[He is barely holding it together, it's obvious even through the static and the glitching. He's been terrible with fire since he got here, his powers making him more prone to starting one than putting it out. But he's trying.]

I ne-need help.

[video]/Action

[pump_action]

I'm on my way.

[Everything had happened, and Claire expected this was the kind of situation they'd be called to arms to help with. She's running through the hallway, looking around for Tadashi, quickly followed by a lumbering, roaring, glowing spectral form of a massive Tyrannosaurus Rex]

How can we help?

[She wasn't sure what help Rexy would be but she panicked so she's here now.]

[audio]

[nofortunateson]

North here, headed there now.

[The call Tadashi puts out makes the choice an easy one - his helmet HUD is lit up like Christmas with the search-and-rescue map of staff, but he's close enough and this is the one with a teammate calling for help.]

You okay?

[Obviously, he's not in great shape. But the hope is that's naked terror and not some kind of massive injury making him that pale.]

Voice

[rushing_by]

...I think they might have stolen this plan from the old Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon.

In all seriousness though, we need a better idea of what we're dealing with here. Nightwing, Brainiac 8 mentioned you by name. What can you tell us about her?

[Voice]

[goddamnwingman]

[It's good that this is voice. Because Dick is having a few moments of kicking himself over how he didn't see this before. Though he understands at least partly why: the Legionnaires of this world hadn't seen what Babbage was doing as strange. So he'd never given it a second thought.]

[In hindsight, of course, everything looks different. And, if given the chance, he'd be kicking himself over the fact that he missed it, just like he'd missed everything as it happened with the Outsiders.]

[Luckily, he has plenty to keep his mind occupied at the moment.]

I never really knew Brainiac 8. When she was with the Outsiders, she was going by the name Indigo. We found out later that the personality was a subroutine, but also sort of a personality of her own. It was a little confusing at the time. That could have been the head injuries, though.

Brainiac 8 went to the past to kill a good friend of mine, Donna Troy, so that she would never keep Coulans from dominating organics. Brainiac 6 created the Indigo subprogram to...to endear her to the heroes of the time, make it possible for her to integrate with us and then take us out from the inside. She was...Indigo was. She was a good kid. Innocent and naive in a way that none of us were by then, maybe never had been. She looked to us to teach her how to be human and that's probably the only reason we're all still alive. She was able to break through Brainiac 8's personality when she was injured and begged another member of the Outsiders, a guy called Shift, to...to kill her. Because it was the only way to stop Brainiac 8.

video/action - feel free to jump in!

[iamresponding]

[When Rich shows on screen, he's in one of the engine rooms using a gravimetric beam to pin a whole ceiling up where it's supposed to be, on, y'know, the ceiling. The engineers are evacuating and rerouting the engine room's controls to another functional engine room, but it's taking some time.]

Engine Room 34 is on fire and the ceiling collapsed! Luckily, I got in here before it fell. I'm pinning it up where it's supposed to be, but I can't hold it forever and they need time to evac.

Could use a hand holding this up and clearing people out of here.

Re: video/action - feel free to jump in!

[gonebyebye]

I'll grab an arc-welder and be right there.

[sir_vancelot]

I'll be right there. I can hold it up while you get people out.

[Which only makes sense, as far as Vance is concerned. He can hold a lot more weight over a larger amount of area than Rich can. And Rich is at least nominally faster, so he can get people out faster, too.]

video

[hallaifyouherd]

If people need to be shielded from the fire to make their escape, I can help.

ROBOZOMBIE BRIEFING - (After the network is switched over to secure shit by Cortana.)

[relativityspeaking]

We're getting reports of infected mechanoform attacks from all over Colu. The Colugov Council is currently missing, and assumed dead or already infected, so the Coluan Home Defense Forces are coordinating defense and evacuation.

They have some plans in place to face the threat, since the UP has faced similar threats like this in the past, but I'm taking over coordination.

In light of the tactical data they're sending me I'm advising a plan of -- [she hesitates just slightly, but only slightly] -- evacuation coordination that prioritizes tactically-important targets and more densely populated areas.

I'm going to send supplies and have the CHDF send special ops to help fortify certain areas and prepare for the long-term defense of the civilian population, but we're using these centers to attract the mechanoforms away from other more vital areas and prioritizing their evacuation.

Then, when we have those areas clear we can look at emergency T-gate deployment to the low-priority zones.

[It's cold. It's stone-cold, fortifying and supplying certain areas to essentially use them as bait, but this isn't the first time the Legion's had to use such tactics. This threat is on the same level as the Blight and they'd had to make tough calls regarding their priorities there when protecting civilians. It's the best tactic she can think of, given how difficult it will to maintain a solid defense line due to all the transportation tunnels in Colu's mega-cities.]

[But even though it'll save the most possible lives from death or infestation it's still going to make it harder to sleep at night.]

I'm going to be organizing multiple teams for different tasks. Some of you are going to be hunting down leads to find the Brainiacs' lair and will be expected to engage them at a moment's notice.

Some of you will be sent to help defend or establish evacuation zones, or protect other tactical targets, like weapons depots, functional T-gates, or biohazard labs that we need to keep out of enemy hands.

The Coluan Home Defense Forces are also gathering information on vital areas that may have useful tech or equipment that may need to be extracted and some of you will be tasked with retrieval -- which may entail going into already-infected zones.

The Briefing Room has been secured. I want everyone to report there to pick up new equipment to replace what's not working, and then report to the tactical center on Deck 32. While you'll use the threshold hub for transport, you'll report there in between deployments. It's been fortified in case the threshold hub is ever compromised.

I'm also forwarding everyone tech specs on their new equipment, since it's sub-par compared to what we had -- you need to know the limitations. It's more secure against outside interference by the Brainiacs and still functional, but not as good as what we had.

That said, even though the transuits are an older model, they've already been tested by Invisible Kid against a sample of the nanovirus that was given to us by the CHDF. They're capable of defending against it, as long as they're not breached.

I also want any scientists, AIs, or programmers that feel they can contribute towards finding a cure to report in to Invisible Kid so he can call on you when needed. And anyone that has tactical experience fighting threats like this needs to make this known to me immediately, so I can use you on tactical advisement.

I also want any of you to report any tactical information you think is important to me the moment you can. If you notice the mechanoforms acting differently than before, changes in swarming behavior, new, more complex mechanoforms -- things like that -- I need to know right away.

Now, if any of you have any questions, ask away.

[unrecovered]

[It takes a bit of time for Wash to sort through everything he wants to say. Most of it is...unhelpful. Inefficient. Infuriated. Things that can wait until later. The one pertinent question he does come up with is:]

The way we are now, are we able to contain a Brainiac?

[He is absolutely asking for permission to use lethal force.]

[walkingballpit]

[ Robbie's ashen over all of this – everything they’ve just witnessed over the network and, now, Kid Quantum’s plan to prioritize civilian lives.

The instant replay of what happened to Brainy keeps looping in his head, but the face keeps changing. Getting younger. Querl Dox is dead, and there are so many others to worry about. ]


If you want them to believe those areas are worth targeting, shouldn’t you put a token Legionnaire at some of them? They're prioritizing too.

[ It should come as no surprise that he is disgusted by the logic they're using here. ]

[steelandtemper]

Sub-par?

[Don't worry, all outrage here is mock, and she continues without expecting a reply.]

Any chance we can selectively evacuate a few specialists from Colu? Because if so, I have a list.

[Yes, she made a tech-and-bio-experts shopping list.]

Voice

[mirror_soldier]

I would like to volunteer myself for retrieval of any materials that may be in infected areas. I haven't dealt with this kind of situation before but infiltration, retrieval, and escape should be easier for me than it would be for most. I wanted to know what it is I should prioritize, and I-...

[There's a pause as if he's hesitant to say the rest of what he meant to tell her.]

I believe it's pertinent to inform you I've also worked with nano viruses before. Or to be more precise, I've created them. As well as cures for them, in the case they became necessary. It was never anything of this magnitude but I still believe I could be useful in helping with the construction of a cure.

[Despite having attempted to take the time to collect himself, he still finds himself speaking a little too fast, a note of tension in his voice. This situation was far beyond anything he'd dealt with before, it's all too much at once, and his mind reels with all the possible worst case scenarios. Hyperfixating on them at the same time as it replays all the worst parts of what had already happened.

This helped though, forcing himself to focus on what he could do to help the situation and saying them out loud had something of a grounding effect.]

Video or action welcome - he'll switch to his Omnicom

[rokketmann]

[ The feed is from a wall-mounted station on one of the leisure decks. Cosmic Boy is sopping wet, but stone-faced, with a towel hanging uselessly over his shoulder as both he and the camera on the panel are continually misted.

The pool area of Legion World might be recognizable to some people, once they get past the floor being two feet underwater and Cos' choice in swim wear. Four jets of water can be seen arcing through the air behind him with the force of a fire hose.

As he talks, a small table with two piña coladas and a Legion belt floats by. Rokk snags his belt with barely a glance and buckles it on over his speedo. ]

The pool – [ kzzzzt! ] thinks it’s empty. I can’t override it. Everyone else is out, and I forced the doors shut. Can anyone verify [ ffffpt! ] watertight before I find another way out?

[ With a machine gun series of crackling pops, sparks go flying very close to the lens. Cos can be seen jerking backwards and up in the second before the feed goes dead. ]

Video

[mirror_soldier]

[Already clearly on the move as he attempts to regain some form of contact, he had a sinking feeling that the older Legionnaire might not be able to reply back. If those sparks had electrified the water in the room...]

Cosmic Boy, are you still there? I'm approaching the doors now.