Stormfront (The Fall of Galaxy City - Fiction)

'Goooooood morning, this is Rudy Matthews with the Paragon News Radio weather forecast! Today we'll be seeing highs of 84 in the Paragon City area, with the humidity up in the nineties. All you meteor shower watchers should know we'll be having partial cloud, so here's hoping for the best! This will weather will continue tomorrow, but we have storms coming at the end of the week. That's the morning weather for you, brought to you by Paragon Pizza Pie, home of the Spanky's Feast. I'll be back for a weather update at lunch. In the mean time, have a good morning!'

((As it seems to be the best place to put this...))



{PCFD Station, Steel Canyon, 13th September 2011, approximately 10:00}

Shanna Connell groaned at the overly awake antics of Jake and the station's dog, Soot, and tried to wedge her shoulders into a more comfortable position on the rec room sofa where she was trying to take a nap.

Despite her good intentions of getting an early night, she'd ended up reviewing the footage taken by her battle armour during the rescue of Sammy Huntington on Sunday night. She'd wanted to make sure she had every last detail memorised before going to interrogate the woman they had arrested at the scene. While she had been successful in that endeavour, the unfortunate result was that by the time she'd reported in for her shift, she'd felt the need to take a catnap until the inevitable emergency call.

She'd managed to doze off for a few minutes, when a half whispered shout penetrated her consciousness, immediately followed by the feeling of being unceremoniously jumped on as Soot leapt onto the sofa to retrieve a badly aimed ball. Fury briefly warred with amusement and lost as the dog, ball in his mouth, took the opportunity to sit on her stomach.

“Okay, okay, I'm up! Gimme that!”

The red-head wrestled the bright blue ball free of the spaniel's mouth and, without seeming to look, threw it directly at Jake as vengeance for his poorly executed pitch. She couldn't help but laugh as the missile hit it's target and bounced off the unsuspecting man's left shoulder.

“Fetch!”

Stormfront

There had been a faint chill in the air when she’d arrived in Galaxy City that morning. A hint, Ellie thought, of the approaching end to summer as the tides of time moved inexorably towards the end of the year. Thanks to no classes to teach, she’d been able to spend more time in the city recently, actually fulfilling her role as one of the city’s heroes for a change, and was just completing the arrest of a group of idiots in Galaxy when the siren started.

At first, she didn’t bother to look up. The siren was nothing new and another Rikti raid looked to be about as interesting as arresting these Hellion’s had been, but once they were tagged and collected by the Zig’s teleport grid, she finally looked up.

A frown creased her brow as she noticed that the war walls were still online and the sky had yet to take on its telltale dark lustre from the alien attackers. She was just about to mutter something about unreliable aliens when she saw it, a streak of fire breaking through the light cloud cover and trailing a line of smoke behind it. It was quickly followed by another and another, until dozens of them had broken through, turning the sky a deep orange, and Ellie gasped as she realised what they were, meteors!

Throwing herself into the sky, she didn’t give herself the luxury of thinking about her actions, didn’t have time to consider that something had gone horribly wrong with the so called meteor shower the scientists had predicted. All she had time to do, was react to the imminent threat they posed. She’d done this once before in London and she would simply have to do it again. Around her, more brightly clad figures also took to the skies as they too headed to intercept the incoming barrage of cosmic garbage, brightly coloured streams of energy and magic already firing from them in an effort to forestall the carnage. Ignoring the intense stab of pain he cause, she shifting over to her beast form and threw herself at one of the missiles.

*WHAM!*

The impact was much worse than the last time she’d done this, the angle far steeper and the size of the burning rock far greater than previously. She saw stars briefly, stunned for a few seconds, before she shook her head and began to push back against the rocks’ headlong plummet. Her rebuilt armour protected her body from the intense heat, but she could already feel the skin of her face starting to crisp and smell the distinctive odour of burning hair. Pushing the pain aside, she began to push harder, vaguely aware of explosions happening further below as the meteors began to strike, and of the faint screams of people as they scrambled for some kind of cover.

Her muscles straining and energy flaring brightly around her, Ellie used all her incredible power to divert the meteor, trying to slow its headlong rush and alter its trajectory away from the city, and gradually, she began to have an affect. It’s angle flattened out as it crossed Galaxy City and its speed dropped rapidly as she pushed back with all her might, determined to stop it from destroying her adopted home. So intently was she focusing on her task though, that she failed to noticed a large glowing creature emerge from the surface of the rock and stalk towards her.

Standing more than eight feet even though hunched over, the creature quickly crossed the half dozen meters to where the young heroine held the rock on her back and once it had gotten close enough, it suddenly let out an ear shattering roar. Her head snapping around, Ellie’s eyes widened as she saw the oddly familiar creature and gasped out loud. “Oh crap!”

There was nothing she could do. If she tried to defend herself the meteor would strike the city, possibly killing hundreds, and as the creature raised its huge claw to strike, she had just enough time to mumble. “This is sooo gonna hurt...”

Paragon City, Atlas Park
Chiron Medical Centre
Around Midday

The syringe shattered as it hit the floor, glass shards ringing in the sudden silence. Doctors and patients alike turned with puzzled and shocked stares as Doc Vixen, known to the City as the Heroine Kitsune Vixen, stumbled and clutched at her head.

"Doc?" the young man on the chair beside her, who had until a second ago been more concerned about not flinching from the standard injection and looking like a wuss in front of the pretty young woman, asked with a look of concern.

"T-The sound..." she managed to gasp, head snapping up and staring, wide eyed and panicked, out the window. "Can't...can't you hear it?!"

The others turned, watching in stunned silence as, a few miles away, glowing trails appeared in the sky above Galaxy City...

***

The Rogue Isles
Krimzon Guard Command Bunker

"Ma'am? We've got confirmation. They've entered the atmosphere, on the course the Fateweavers and Fortunatas predicted."

"Very well, Lieutenant. Keep me posted on troop movements."

The large Crab Spider sat back in her chair, smirking faintly behind her helmet. Webmaster Commander Marian King had been incredibly irate with the sudden order to halt troop movements and delay to their plans to assault their current target, the group known as the Corporation.

Now, however, the carnage about to be unleashed on those weak idiots in Paragon very nearly made up for it...

***

Paragon City
Freedom Court
Some time later...

Burning. Disintegrating concrete and melting girders. The occasional, horrific whiff of charred human flesh.

Those were the sensations that assaulted even the robotic senses of Chief Centurion Z1. Nearby the Hound Brothers, Wolf and Fox, were trying to shepherd fleeing civilians with the aid of Colonel Lyndon, Vix and a squad of Vanguard rangers.

That progress was coming to a grinding halt, however...

A scream alerted them to the threat. Even as the glowing mass of ectoplasma, rubble and twisted metal lurched at the crowd of terrified office workers, doctors, children and everday citizens, the Chief hurled himself in it's path, smashing the thing repeatedly with energised fists until it crumbled and fell.

"Colonel, ETA on that evac?" he shouted over the screams and growing sound of devastation.

"No time soon!" Colonel Lyndon shouted back, energy shield and sword activating as more of the alien abominations hauled themselves from the rubble and craters, each as terrifying as the last, "Air support is pretty much locked down...or being intercepted."

"Intercepted? Who the hell by?!" Wolf yelled back, unloading an entire clip into a shambling mass in front of him, the high calibre shells eventually blowing enough holes in it to stop it dead.

"Arachnos!" Vix replied, trying to keep the crowd together, "The-" her curse was lost in a sudden explosion, "-are capitilising on the chaos! I'm amazed even scum like them would stoop this low!"

"Guys, we've got a bigger problem right now," Fox interrupted, his pointed gauntlet somewhat redundant as a fast approaching horde of the new Shivans rumbled towards them.

"Hold the line!" Chief shouted, placing himself squarely between them and the civilians, resigning himself to do or die...

---

It wasn't to be. There was a sudden sensation of weight, followed by an ear-popping release of pressure. Half of the Shivans simply disintegrated, crushed mid-stride. The rest were caught in the flank by a flurry of high-powered, energized punches.

SABRE team watched in awe as Sister Psyche and Back Alley Brawler tore the horde to shreds of rubble in seconds.

"We've got them!" Shalice shouted back to them, before turning and telekinetically hurling a particularly large Shivan into a second group. "Get the civilians out of here!"

"We can't just leave you guys here without support!" Vix yelled back, beginning to move up to try and support them.

"You won't be!"

---

There was a ear-splitting crack, the second group of Shivans annihilated in a flash of light. A figure rose from the steaming crater, sparks of lightning crackling over him as he turned to the team and the Vanguard troops.

"We need that perimeter secured, and we need to get as many people as humanly and super-humanly possible out of here," Statesman said, back-handing a rising Shivan in the face without even turning. "Can you do that? We can deal with the direct threat...but we can't be everywhere. Please."

The group didn't even need to give it first thought.

"Consider it done. All units, fall back to rally point B, on the double!" Lyndon shouted, turning and gesturing to the Vanguard soldiers nearby. Fox, Wolf and Vix turned and followed. Above them, a squadron of Longbow chasers roared in over the rubble of building, half continuing deeper into the inferno while half split off and formed a flying cordon above the feeling civilians.

"Marcus!"
Statesman turned to see the Chief throw a salute.
"Good luck," the giant robot shouted over the roar of engines and charging Shivans, "And stay alive!"

Statesman saluted in return, a ghost of a smile playing over his face for a second.
"Count on it. Now get them out of here!"

SABRE team and the Vanguard troops disappeared from sight, the last thing they heard before vanishing being the crash of energy gauntlets and the enraged shouting of Back Alley Brawler;
"Get. The. HELL. Off. My. LAWN!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

Midday, Galaxy City

Luna kicked back and stretched out on the blanket she'd laid on pavement in front of the statue. A small crowd had gathered to watch the meteor shower, and Luna was among them. She checked her watch and rested her head on the blanket, waiting for the white streaks to appear in the sky. There was always a sense of connection there. A longing feeling that intensified when she saw celestial bodies or the black emptiness of space. It made sense. Part of her was born in that black void, after all.

A small gasp of appreciation jolted her out of memories of deep space and back to reality. A small streak of white had just shot past in the sky. Luna smiled as it lazily arced over the city. She could almost imagine it was a young Kheldian arriving and drifting down from the sky, but that was just the illusion a bright object so far away gave. Or, at least, far away in theory...

The meteor continued to streak down, and steadily grew brighter, as well. Luna sat up, frowning, even as the crowd behind broke out into a small chorus of polite applause. Then, the pale white streak broke into a red trail, and rugged indentations on the meteor began to become visible.

"Oh, crud... Everyone in the Hall!" she shouted, taking flight without wasting time to check if the people had heard or if they were following.

She accelerated as fast as she could, then, a few feet away, shapeshifted into White Dwarf form, latching onto the side of the meteorite as it rocketed down toward the earth. If things were as hoped, she could use the increase in mass to weigh the meteor down, and direct it somewhere there wouldn't be anyone to get hurt by it...

Gemini Lake! If she could pitch it in the water, then things would get pretty wet, but at least the lake would absorb most of the impact. And it wasn't like she couldn't swim. She grabbed hold on the side and began to shift herself along, hoping the meteor was still high up enough that its trajectory could still be changed...

A few moments later, a small group of picnicers hurridley packing up were drenched in a tidal wave from the nearby lake as a meteor and a Kurukt crashed into it and sunk to the bottom. The group watched in surprise as a small, bedraggled girl pulled herself out of the lake's edge, brushing her blonde hair out of her face, and spraying water out of her mouth.

"Hey. Sorry about that. Meteors, what are you gonna do?" she grinned up to the drenched group standing on the small hillside.

Then, her smile evaporated as the sky behind them came into focus. A thousand small, red dots were slowly coming into view...

{Huntington Manor, Paragon City, Primal Earth, 13 September 2011}

Helena Huntington analysed the latest data results from Master Richard's proposed forcefield support network, and mentally nodded to herself. That equipment should be capable of holding the mass of a seven-hundred and twenty metre space-faring warship. It wouldn't be long before the gantries and other physical structures were in place to hold the vessel, and she would then be tasked with...

A sudden feeling of loss assaulted her electronic mind. Dozens of her sensor nodes reported a loss of function, almost as if a million voices cried out at once, and were suddenly silenced. In microseconds, she was scrolling through her asset list, checking for error reports, trying to narrow down the source.

Avatars, all: Accounted for.
Huntington Manor: Accounted for.
Westlake Manor, England: Accounted for.
Huntington Technologies, Independence Port, Paragon City: Accounted for.
Huntington International, England: Accounted for.
Flat 711, Bellevue Rise, Founder's Falls, Paragon City: Accounted for.
Flat 403, Gemini View, Galaxy City, Paragon City: Unavailable.

She paused. That wasn't right. She grabbed her sensor data for the past five minutes from Master Richard's flat in Galaxy City, and replayed it. It was really very dull, especially since there was nobody actually in the flat at the time, so she got to watch the plant on the windowsill slowly converting sunlight into sugars.

There was a sudden flash outside the window. The timestamp was 3.2 seconds before she lost all signal from the flat. She began a frame-by-frame analysis of the last few seconds, and...

Tarvin had been on a train when the first impact struck. Travelling back from Talos to his home in Perez, the wolfman habitually used the Galaxy City station and he wasn’t bothered enough by the events of the morning to change his plans. The forces of Artemis were no slouches but, even though he often derided himself, nor was he. Adding to that the fact that the extra time gave him time to use the medical machine to mend the damage to his unbooted feet and think about past days.

He’d never really been at home anywhere but here. Largely unwanted by his family, it was only since the runt of the litter had not only survived here but begun to thrive that he’d won any sort of respect. It had been in his fathers last communique, sent after his death. A message of congratulation and a statement of respect. He’d been left his fathers’ sword but he would have to have it shipped to him and he was thinking of how expensive that would be as the train entered Galaxy City limits.

The first he knew of the incoming trouble was when the boy child to the front of the cabin opined that the meteor shower seemed to be a lot closer than he’d expected. He’d looked and put up a shields around the people of the carriage, ignoring their squawks of protest. Something hit the elevated lines and the train bucked and crashed to the ground. The shields he’d used would save some from falling beams and glass but he knew there was little he could do against the falling injuries. He tried not to think about impact in the five seconds it took for the train to smash itself against the ground.

Cries of pain pulled him around from the stupor he’d found himself in and the wolfman wondered how long he’d been out. It felt like several moments. He shook his head hard and wished he hadn’t. His vision swam and he fought to steady his vision. His medical device could be set to work on humans too so he reset the device and tried pushing the train roof off people. He pulled several from the rubble and left three more there including the boy. There was no point rescuing them. None at all, he thought sadly. A propelled force field knocked out the door above him and he pulled himself out of the tomb to look around.

Buildings destroyed all around him. The smell of smoke in the air and fire burning bright as rock after rock rained down. He gave no advice to those he’d freed as to if they should stay or go. Neither option was preferable right now. Their choice was their own although he felt bitterly for the keening of the mother he’d spoken to not five minutes back. He felt the loss. Then he saw something rise from one of the meteors and he felt a growl rise within. Hundreds dead. An entire city destroyed. Now the enemy revealed itself. With a howl of defiance, he joined the battle.

Amanda Wong stepped away from her telescope, lower lip trembling away. All of a sudden, her legs gave out from under her. Jonathan was there, gently lowering her to the group.

'They... they weren't fun meteors...' She said in a quivering little voice, before bursting into tears. It was all Jonathan could do, holding her close as she sobbed.

The roar of propulsion discs, rising even above the crackle of flames and the sound of falling rubble. The rhythmic, dirge like crash of armoured boots on charred concrete. The sound of safeties being flicked off, the hum of energy weapons, the steady crackle of arcane lightning.

Through the fire and the smoke the black fliers came. Through the chaos and the pain came the red and black battalion. Through the ruined streets came the forces of Arachnos.

"This is our battleground. This is our prize. This is where the weak die and the strong survive."

The voice echoed above the din, as rank after rank of armoured and power armoured troops marched past before splitting into units and strike forces.

"This is our recruiting ground. This is our killing field. Purge the weak. Bind the strong. Forge our new order and begin our conquest."

Rising Shivans were brought down with sustained blasts of red lightning and heavy firepower. Resistance from Longbow forces or any Hero who tried to get in their way was met with scything curtains of machine gun fire, longfang guns and pulverising mace blows.

"Take what is rightfully ours. Suffer not weakness or fools or challengers."

Stood atop a giant, angled shard of ruined building, flanked by officers and elite troops, Webmaster Commander Marian King, punched a bladed gauntlet into the sky.

"Krimzon Guard! Arachnos! Let our conquest begin! Hail Recluse!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

As conciousness slowly returned, the first thing Ellie became aware off was the pain. Her entire body hurt, like she'd been hit by something massive, but the worst was her face. Far more than her body, her face felt like it had been flayed raw and dipped in acid, and she grimaced as slowly, she opened her eyes.

She couldn't see a thing. Wherever she was, the darkness was so absolute that not even her feline vision could make anything out; nor could she hear anything either. Wherever she was, it was as dark and quiet as a grave.

A brief shiver ran down her spine as that unpleasant thought crossed her mind, and mumbling softly to herself, she started to sit up. Immediately, intense pain flashed through both her left arm and her head, the latter as she cracked it against something hard a few inches above her, causing her to flop back with a curse. A few seconds later she tried to lift her arm again, only to give up immediately as another flash of pain stabbed through it. After a moment's pause, she tentatively moved her other arm, and feeling no pain, tried to feel above her.

Stone by the feel of it, or concrete. She moved her hand in a circle, feeling as much as she could, and after a moment came to the grim realisation that wherever she was, she appeared to be buried. From the feel of it, her legs were pinned tight, only her right arm appeared to have any movement at all, and from the smell of the air, it wouldn't be long before what she was breathing became too stale to be much use.

"Okay... Don't panic... You've been in worse situations than this... I think... Good thing you were wearing your comlink." Her voice seemed weak and thready, but the sound of it lent her some small comfort as she reached for the button comm behind her left ear.

"Aaaaah!!" The yell of pain surprised her, even as an intense stab of agony lanced through her entire head, and she pulled her hand away quickly, her fingers sticky with blood.

"Oookay... Not such a good idea... Guess I must be hurt there, too... Alright... Let's see..." She thought for a moment, an edge of panic beginning to nudge the edge of her awareness, then she remembered. "My suit! That's it, the biomonitors..."

Feeling carefully with her right hand, she managed to locate her left forearm, where the control gauntlet was located, and managed to open the flap after some fumbling. Wincing, she pressed the activation control and let her hand drop away. A second later, her remaining right side monocle flickered on and began to run through diagnostics, both for itself and its wearer.


Bio-Systems Readout
Compound fracture, left occipital bone
Compound fracture, left ulna
Compound fracture, left radius
Compound facture, left humerous
Estimated 1.16 pints blood loss

Biological energy levels, 4.2%. Rate of depletion, 0.87% per hour. Rate of replenishment, 0%. Core matrix energy compromised. ETA to depletion, 4.6 hours at current usage.

Non-Biological Systems Readout
Armour integrity, 85%. Main area of damage, left arm.
Self-repair systems offline
Mediport beacon offline
Stealth system offline
GPS system offline
Comm system offline
Emergency defense shield system online

Non-biological energy levels, 15%. Rate of depetion, 30% per hour.
Warning: Emergency defensive shield activated. Predicted failure, 15.35 minutes.


Ellie worried at the readings for a moment, her thoughts beginning grow somewhat foggy, before she asked herself. "Why aren't I getting any power?"

No answer was forthcoming, and after a time, she began to feel herself starting to drift off too sleep. Giving her head a little shake to try to clear it, a sudden stab intense pain jolted her wide awake, and once it subsided to a bearable level, she muttered to herself.

"No, I am NOT going to die in here..."

Slowly, her movements restricted to the few inches space available to her, she began to punch the ceiling.

{Galaxy City, 13th September 2011}

It was chaos. Everywhere they looked there were people running, panicking, desperately trying to escape the rubble, or the Shivans that were rising out of the meteors that had destroyed much of the area.

“Fea! Duck!”

She obeyed the command before it had even registered on her conscious mind, as her twin brother flew over her head, planting a foot squarely in the “face” of one of the alien creatures that had come up behind them. He leapt clear as she threw a bolt of fire at it, making the creature disintegrate before returning to her attempt to free trapped citizens.

“Neit, I could use a hand here.” Shanna called indicating the steel door buried behind the rubble, the rhythmic banging telling them of the people inside. Considering that the rest of the building had been levelled, it was fortunate that the vault had been designed to withstand super powered assault; that was probably the only thing that had kept it relatively intact after the meteors started falling.

Even as the siblings put all their effort into moving the support beam that trapped people in the vault of the jewellery store, more meteors slammed down into what had once been a beautiful part of the city. The sky almost looking burnt with the trails of fire as other heroes desperately tried to deflect the deadly rocks.

“It's no good. Ye're gonna have t' cut it!” the Irishman shouted over the din.

Shanna nodded and, trusting her brother to keep them safe from more Shivans, she concentrated, focusing her power and bringing it to bear on the recalcitrant I-beam. Precious minutes passed as she carefully cut the metal into a more manageable size, forcing herself to be deaf to the screams and sounds of combat going on around her.

The second the beam split, Raurí was back next to her pulling the half-length of steel away and unsealing the door. The cries of relief from the vault's inmates may have had a slightly hysterical edge to them as it slowly swung open on protesting hinges, but given the situation, even the most jaded of Paragon's citizens would have been hard pressed to remain stoic. A quick head count told the brother and sister team that there were eleven people to get to safety, including a baby that couldn't be more than three months old.

“We're gonna have t' make a run for it. Stick t'gether an' follow Neit. I'll be coverin' us from the air.” Shanna ordered the cowed survivors, then glanced at her brother, “Ready?”

At his nod, she stepped into the air and hovered fifteen feet or so above the heads of the group, using her fire to clear the way, denying the Shivans more victims as they rampaged through what had once been a prosperous area. The survivors ran, following Raurí in a terrified huddle, almost as if they were a single multi-legged entity, with the mother and her child at the centre.

“Neit, break left!” She yelled, blasting at a group of five creatures that were making a bee line for the refugee group. Shanna drew them away, and with a well placed fireball, toppled what remained of a wall onto the aliens. She didn't bother to confirm that they were more than trapped before she rushed back to her brother's group to keep them safe from the air.

The small group continued on, Raurí now carrying the jewellery store owner who had a nasty gash on his leg, while Shanna protected them from the air, collecting other survivors as they made their way to the Vanguard controlled checkpoint.

Never in her life had two hundred yards seemed so long! She'd seen her fair share of fights – some nastier than others – but nothing on this scale. The relief she felt as she saw the soldiers advancing to cover their escape was almost overwhelming. Well trained and practised manoeuvres in evidence as they spread out and fired bursts into the aliens that were close behind.

In all, by the time they reached the safety of the checkpoint, there were eighteen in the group. Eighteen shocked, injured and frightened people who were now in the safe hands of the Vanguard medics.

The twins looked at each other for a moment, before an unspoken agreement saw them charging back through the streets, looking for another survivor to help.

Edit to fix typos

There was a grisly crunch, the Longbow rifleman's body hitting the floor a moment later.

Gunnery Sergeant Doc motioned the rest of the Bane Spider strike-team onward, the ten-strong group using their cloaking fields to get the drop on Longbow's forces.
He paused, looking round as he heard the sound again, raising a fist to stop the squads movement.

A hand, wreathed in flame, punched upward through a fallen slab with a yell of part-desperation and part pure frustration. Doc watched as what looked like a Hellion literally tore his way out of the rubble, smirking behind his helm as the young man tore off his shattered mask and looked around with hellfire and vengeance still in his eyes.

"Yo, kid."
The youth turned, taking in the ten-man squad perched on rubble and stood with maces shouldered.
"Want to roll with the winning side f'ra change?"

Wiping a bloody streak from his mouth and nose, the young man grinned.
"Sign me up, spider. Just gimme something to torch and a way outta this dump."

The kid followed them for a while, before being directed down a ruined alley to one of the drop-zones. With a click and a grin, Doc added another to the tally, the ever-rising number of those that would soon be calling the Rogue Isles their home...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

A crash shook the small six by ten cell then the screaming started, distant at first then drawing closer and closer, not just the usual noise her fellow captives made, this was far more visceral, the kind of screams that she used to elicit from those that crossed her.

------------------------------

After so long in captivity Alona Ó'Conaill had lost track of time, days flowed between torturous experiements and her innevitable reaction to the pain, the Crey idiots still havent managed to work out the right mix of tranqs that would put the vigilante down. But when the crash shook her cell it roused her from her slumber, her mind was cloudy until the screaming started. Looking down to make sure she hadnt escaped again and blacked out in a rage she found herself in her cell still, in those same stupid hospital like robes that she hated so much in 'calming' greens, yeah right, like anything could calm her down.

Upon looking around surprise gripped her as the lock disingaged on the heavy door and instantly Celestyna burst into motion, nearly yanking the door off of its hinges as she left the cell and immediately headed for where she knew her equipment would be found.

Ten minutes later and several wardrobe malfunctions when maiming guards she found herself in the armoury, sat there in a box marked 'Subject C-6510' was her gear and ofcourse her mask.

------------------------------

Rage, blood, cries and pain filled her world, but she didn't quell her aggression, fuelled by endless rage she crashing into the Shivans without a second thought, reaching through the largest ones infront of her, penetrating the goo like outershell and crushing the brain seemed to work well enough, she'd make these things feel the same fear they inflicted on the hapless populace of this city.

Around her chaos reigned and meteorites fell, which suited Alona just fine in the end, its what she lived for after all, Galaxy City may well be dying, but this lone vigilante isnt going to let it go down without a fighting chance.

(This story is a little gory in description, reader discretion is advised)




September 15th, Thursday, 13:50.

Inside what was once an average office building rec room, now the contorted ruins of what once was, full of smoke, dust, broken glass and rubble. The tremors of the devastation still echo as the fight for Galaxy City's survivors continues shaking the foundations. Light peers into the room from the shatter windows and cracked walls, illuminating the masked dead that now litter within. Among the corpses, partially beneath the still hot rubble, lay the lifeless body of one of Paragon's defenders, Yoko Hatori, Tigergirl to the world.

Her costume burnt and in tatters, hair burnt away, left arm and legs, pinned beneath the burning rubble, part of her face and scalp scorched and coated in her dry blood, she lay there, unconscious, almost dead. Another tremor from the war outside rocks the unstable building, her right eye opened, her left sealed shut by dried blood, she gasped in the smoky air, choking and spitting blood soon after. Looking around, confused and disorientated, she slowly tries to make sense of her surroundings.

What happened? Where...where am I? Can't move my...

Yoko's thoughts ended there, realising her legs and arm are trapped under the ruins. Cursing pitifully, she began pulling herself free with her one good limb, gritting her teeth at the pain. The minutes felt like week as she dragged herself free, scraping at her raw, and charred flesh, but she soon made it.

Rolling onto her back and gasping for more air, what little remained, Yoko reached to her belt, pulling an oxygen mask from one of the pouches, and a small canister from another. She fumbles them together with her one working hand, emptying it into her lungs once ready. It didn't hold much, but she wasn't about to complain, she needed all she could get.

The survivor, regaining what senses she has left, examines her surroundings. The masked corpses around her triggered a memory. Hellions she recognised We were fighting before...what happened? Yoko shook her head lightly and took to assessing her injuries. Her right leg was injured but her left took the brunt of the damage, broken and twisted, both were burnt, but her right leg could still move somewhat. Her arm however.

“Oh god...”

Her arm was barely recognisable. Blackened by the flaming rubble, broken. And her forearm? Her hand? Nothing. Taken by the ruins.

Starting to panic, Yoko looked for the mediport on her belt. Jabbing the device with her thumb did nothing of worth. She tried her Unity Vigil commslink in her ear, but the sound of fizzing and sparks were her only response. Slipping the mediport away, and on the verge of breaking, the hero known as Tigergirl began crawling for the window, dragging her remains for any sort of salvation.

The light was blinding, yet gratifying, offering the last hope she had for life. Pulling herself through and falling only a few feet, Yoko gave a weak smile to the sky. As her vision returned the smile soon left. The ruins of the entire Galaxy City dawned, the chaos and death brought in an instant and sudden attack. Reaching for her communicator once more in desperate hope of an answer, she slowly fell back into unconsciousness.

"Who were you talking to?! Is help on its way?!" A woman asked, no, demanded of Natasha Sheers, tears in her eyes. She had just finished her call to the only person she wanted to talk to at the time, and had steadied her breathing.

"No help is coming." Natasha said firmly. "That's why we're going to get ourselves out of this. If we all work together, to help the wounded and to follow orders, we'll make it out alive." She looked meaningfully at the elevator doors. "The fire escapes are out on this floor. We can use the maintenance ladders to get down to either the ground floor, or a floor with access to the fire escapes.

"That'll never work! There might be fire down there, we could all be burned-"

"Let me worry about fire. If we don't try it though, we'll die. I don't feel like dying much. I have a sofa to get home to, a bottle of wine to open, and someone to drink it with. This whole -area- has been hit by meteors. No one's coming because they can't. They're trying what they can to help, but they're being overwhelmed."

Nat ignored the woman's protests as she started over towards the elevator doors. "Is everyone ready to move?" She asked firmly, looking about at the survivors of that level of the Galaxy Tower office complex, mostly staff of Serif Accountants and various reporters.

"We've patched some of these people up as best we could, but Miss Serif... I'm not sure we should move her in this condition." Dan Edisson of the Paragon Evening News said, rubbing a hand at the back of his neck. "She's in a pretty bad was as is..."

"I know, but is she going to be in more danger here than if we move her?" Jewel Green of the Paragon Standard chimed in. "What's not being able to walk versus death? And with the medical care in the city, the first isn't a definite..."

"Jewel's right, Dan..." Natasha sighed. "Those strong enough to, help the wounded down the ladders. We'll go down as far as we can, and if we can get no further? Go through an office block to get to the ground level. I'll take point."

"Can you hear yourself?" The woman, a Serif employee, shouted. "You're no hero! You can't just go down there and save the day!"

"No, I'm not a hero." Natasha stated. "I've done things that could be considered heroic. I've helped my partner stop an Elder Goddling from coming into this world. We've travelled and seen rogue mages and odd things aplenty. I once strode into a cave full of demons wearing only boots and a longcoat to rescue them from a demonic marriage proposal. But for most of the time? I've only reported on it. Shied away from doing what I could, because I was scared." She was walking towards the woman, fists clenched and back straight. "Well I'm more scared now than I've ever been, so what's stopping me?"

The woman looked blankly at her, all of her objections suddenly forgotten.

"Open those elevator doors. Pick the one that is least damaged and we'll go down it."

Somewhere in Galaxy City - Impact +4 Hours

Ellie's breath was coming in ragged gasps now, her exertions having depleted what little oxygen remained in her would-be tomb to dangerous levels. Her armours' power systems had failed long ago, but she didn't need the display to know that she was dangerously low on reserves and soon she wouldn't be able to supplement her human form with life sustaining energy. When that happened, she figured she'd have a couple of minutes at most before she suffocated.

She'd already tried teleporting her way out, then shape shifting and even converting to full energy so she could pass through the rubble above, but she was long past the power levels needed for that; there wasn't even enough left for her energy claws. All she had left was enough to try to physcially dig her way free.

For nearly four hours now, she'd been alternating between punching her way through the rubble and half passing out from the pain and blood loss, but she'd managed to dig a shaft a few meters long. Her feet were currently braced against the crumbling sides as her armoured fist smashed and clawed at the material above.

Abruptly, there was a loud booming clang and pain shot through her arm and head, making her yelp as she quickly withdrew her hand to suck her knuckles. "What the bloody hell?" Her voice was hoarse and weary, her fatigue obvious were anyone there to hear.

Frowning, she shook her hand, then reached up again to feel around. A smooth surface that yielded slightly to slow pressure but, after tapping with a knuckle, instantly hardened. Her frown deepening, Ellie pushed against it and felt it start to yield. Once centimeter, two, three; then, abruptly, there was a metallic tearing sound and her hand broke through into empty space.

Instantly, Ellie gasped as burning hot air poured through the hole, searing her already burned skin and making her cough and choke as it scalded her lungs. But with it came a sudden feeling of warmth deep in her core and she abruptly realised that whatever had been blocking her from recharging had been breached! Energy, wonderful and glorious cosmic radiation! It felt far weaker than usual, barely enough to stabilize her current power loss, but it was enough to give her hope.

She hung there for a few moments, her hand hanging on as the scalding air rushed to fill the hole she'd dug. Then, with a metallic shriek of abused metal, she tore the opening wider and pulled herself through.

---

Impact +9 Hours

A faint light gleamed weakly in the darkness, a tiny point of red in an enveloping velvet shroud. Surrounding it, darker patches of black filled the adjacent space and filled the room with the scent of scorched metal. At the centre of the room, Ellie lay on her side; her breathing still laboured after inhaling scorching hot air, but at least now there was oxygen enough that the purplish tinge in her lips was fading. Abruptly, a coughing fit seized her and she curled into a ball as her lungs protested the sudden influx of air.

She lay there for several minutes after the coughing eased, curled up tightly as she drifted briefly into unconciousness. Then with a scrape of her boots on the strange metallic floor, she pushed herself up onto a hand and knees, her left arm still held tightly to her side, and started to crawl towards the light.

It took her a long time to reach it, interminable minutes passed as she slowly dragged herself towards the only sign of life she'd seen in hours. Finally though, she reached the base of whatever it was and hauled herself upright. This close to it, the tiny light lit up the surrounding few centimeters weakly, revealing a small keypad and a grille. The buttons were scorched and half melted, but the largest of them had "RELEASE" stamped on it. Not knowing what it was, but hoping it was something that could help, Ellie pressed it.

A deafeningly loud honking sound filled the room, making her clamp her hand over her right ear and whimper in pain at the touch on her head. A red emergency light lit up, flooding the room in a dim red glow, and next to her, several loud clunks of releasing catches sounded. A moment later the entire wall split down the centre and slid haltingly open, revealing a heavily damanged corridor lit in the same dim emergency lighting.

Looking around, she realised that she must be inside some kind of underground research lab, and she started to make her way through, slowly climbing over the assorted debris. There were bodies here, four white coated technicians sprawled in the wide corridor, each showing signs of having been caught in a fire. The whole place stank of a combination of burnt metal and plastics, and cooked flesh, making her cough more as she picked her way through the debris.

Several meters down the hall, she came across a buckled metal door with a fire exit sign next to it, and pulling it as hard as she could, managed to get it open enough to squeeze through. Inside, half blocked with rubble but showing no signs of fire, a staircase led upwards.

Groaning tiredly, she started to climb.

---

The running battles had taken their toll on both Shanna and Rauri as they escorted another group of survivors to a nearby relief station. Both were looking rather the worse for wear, their bodies marked with minor abrasions as well as soot and grime from the ruined city. The citizens they were escorting, however, were in a far worse condition. Two of them were almost catatonic with shock and were being helped along by some of the others, and most were either sobbing or trying to comfort those that were as they made their way towards the relief station hastily setup by Longbow.

Almost two city blocks behind them, a mound of rubble started to shift. A painfull creak of metal echoed through the night air, startling Rauri and Shanna and making them turn towards its source. With a loud crash, rubble was thrown into the air as a concealed metal door slammed open and a second later, Ellie's blood smeared and filthy body stumbled from the dark portal and staggered to her knees.

"Who the...?" At first he didn't recognize who he was seeing, her face so burned and her white hair gone that she was barely recognizable. Then his eyes widened in shock as he recognized the costume underneath the grime. "Ellie!" Rauri's shout echoed around the empty block and he started to run towards her, not seeing the huge Shivan monster crawling out from a pit behind Shanna. Ellie did though, and without thinking, her arm snapped forwards and a pencil thin beam of energy burst from her hand, slicing the monster in two. A second later, her eyes rolled up and she collapsed fowards, completely drained.

"I got ya, Ellie!"

The womans' shout sounded from the air, and a sudden blur of motion streaked from the sky, catching Ellie before she fell face first into the dirt. "Geez, girl... What the HELL have you been doing!?"

A few seconds later, Rauri reached the two of them and knelt down beside them as Brie, the one who'd caught Ellie, lowered her carefully to the ground. "Where'd YOU spring from?"

Barely sparing him a glance, Brie quickly assessed Ellie's injuries, muttering a reply as she worked. "Was nearby, felt the power spike... Knew it was her... God damn El, you're a MESS!"

Carefully, her fingers probed Ellie broken arm, then her stomach and chest. Finally, she turned her attention to her head and winced. "Her heads all staved in, feels like a fracture. I'll do what I can, but we need to get her out of here." A bright green glow surrounded her hands as she spoke, the distincting glow of a Peacebringer's healing powers going to work.

Rauri looked back towards Shanna and called out, guesturing her away. "Get those people t' safety, Fea, an' tell the medics we got a seriously injured Kheldian comin' in!" Turning back, he carefully started to lift Ellie into his arms, moving slowly so that Brie could keep her hands in place as she focussed on repairing the worst of the damage.

Shanna nodded and turned to the people with her, "Right, we'll have t' shift or we'll be in more trouble. We'll get ye all t' safety soon." A moment later, she and the frightened survivors hurried away, heading for the nearby relief station.

So far, Damia had encountered three arachnos patrols as she led her ragged group of survivors back along the ruined streets. Frankly, with the day she was having, they were more of a diversion than an actual threat, so she'd disarmed them, and let the more able of her followers work off some stress. At the request of one businessman, who, befitting the occasion, had tied his work tie around his head to keep a scalp wound at bay, she called a rest halt. Not safe, but she was damned if she was going to lose any more people.

When she'd first found the huddled survivors, it had seemed a simple thing. Carve a path to the evac zone, let them trail along in her wake, and at least some people would get out. The reality, however, was not so clear cut. There were still meteors streaking across the sky. Small ones, to be sure, but even a small one would have been enough. The shivans were a threat too, and she was already dangerously tired. A meteor had impacted one of the towers, shattering the core of the structure, rather than punching through, the end result of which was a blizzard of glass and steel shards. She'd felt the explosion, then even her reflexes barely had time to dive in front of the nearest of the refugees, a young woman of perhaps 25. Then the shatterstorm had struck, and the next few minutes were a mess of pain, jump-cuts of conciousness, people on the floor around her, too much blood, too much death. The next time she was awake, she saw herself, looking down at the large metal shard sticking straight through her chest. The next moment she had memory, she was on her back, no longer impaled, and it was difficult to tell which was more disconcerting, the huge hole in her chest, or the sight of the young woman she'd tried to protect, run through with the piece of metal that had just vacated her own chest. She'd never know exactly how deep her power had had to work to heal that. Maybe she never wanted to know. All she knew was that every time she closed her eyes, the room spun, and she thought of those eight or nine people who'd literally been shredded by that strike. Like she'd said to Nat when the call had come in, she got better. The others... never would.

Nat. That was the one grace. At least she knew that Nat was alive, and fighting her way back out. It was not something either of them would have been able to put in words easily, but if Nat had died, then it would have been so tempted just to stop fighting, let her overstretched, abused healing faculties rest, and just fall. Given the situation, it was possible that she still...

"No. That wil not happen. Not, not not." She put that one firmly out of her mind. They were alive, they would stay alive, and there was an end to it. Anything else was just unacceptable. So she didn't even give that thought time to finish, before she'd curled her hand around the hilt of her sword, stained green with bits of Shivan, and used it to haul herself to her feet. She made sure everyone who was able had at least one makeshift weapon, and strung her survivors out as a phalanx, with her as the pointy end.

"Right. We're three blocks from the evac zone, we've got a whole bunch of Shivans down that road, and we're all on our last legs. So we run." She looked around at the citizens to make sure they understood. "We move as fast as the slowest, we stay in formation, anything that aims for us, let me handle. If we stop, we may not have time, room or energy to get back up again. Nobody gets left behind, nobody else is dying today. I can already taste the bottle of wine waiting for me at home, and nothing is going to stop me and my partner enjoying that. If you keep running, no matter how much it hurts, no matter how hard it becomes, you'll get out of this. I won't let anyone else go. I promise."

There were nods. Even a couple of cheers. Some people got under the shoulders of others to help them along. "I know it's cliched, but my advice? Survive. Now RUN."

The ragtag, strange little cohort of office workers, truckers and at least one schoolgirl steamed off down the road. Towards the possibility of safety.

Unity Station; 2 hours before impact

Alex leant back into the high-backed chair in the office aboard Unity Station and scratched at the lightly-armoured jumpsuit he was currently wearing. In theory once it was bedded in it would be very comfortable…as it was however it just felt subtly wrong.

Reaching over he tapped a small button set into the desk which lit up and a moment later a feminine voice sounded in the room.

“Yes Alex?” asked the synthetic voice of the Unity Vigil’s OverAI.

“BODICIA, seeing how we have nothing better to do can you bring the astrophysics platforms to ready mode and resume the data recording from the last stellar point. We may as well get some more information for this thesis.”

“Understood, do you want a real time data-stream or would a compressed summary in an hour’s time be preferable?”

Alex paused and tapped his fingers on the desk for a moment before replying “Compressed summary format but if you can give us a live feed on the meteor shower it would provide a nice background whilst we handle this paperwork.”

---

Outside Unity Station a trio of tethered platforms shifted into new positions and began once more actively scanning the night sky.

---

Unity Station; 1 minute before impact

Alex finished filling out the form and glanced over at the data feed on the monitor, paused for a moment, blinked and then slapped the button on the desk

“BODI, is there a problem with the platforms? Only the asteroid telemetry has shifted and I’m not seeing any ejecta or sudden increase in gravitational fields to explain it.”

“Running astrophysics monitoring system check. Negative, monitor systems are functioning properly.”

Alex suddenly swore as the astrophysics platform tracking the asteroids finished computing the new projected course. The red line showing the likely movement of the flock of asteroids no longer grazed the earth’s atmosphere, instead plunging down through it and terminating somewhere on the US’s eastern seaboard.

Fingers flying over a holographic keyboard floating several inches above the desk Alex rattled off a sequence of commands that caused the display to zoom in and highlight the expected impact point.

“Centre of Paragon…figures. BODICIA…damn, too late to give them any useful warning, alright give me the location of the nearest external airlock”

“Understood. Nearest external airlock is the number 8 lock located in the western quadrant of this level.”

Leaving the office at a sprint Alex darted between a pair of startled Unity Vigil members as he hurtled towards the airlock, flickers of kheldian energy already surrounding his body in a faint radiance.

Arriving at the airlock he slapped the open key and stepped inside, the door shuting behind him as the airlock began to cycle slowly. Too slowly.

Shaking his head he allowed the field of kheldian energy surrounding him to flash into full visibility. “We must be insane to think this is a good idea. BODICIA, override airlock sequence and open external door. Override authority ‘AD-Gemini/Pandora’"

The external airlock door snapped open and the atmosphere inside the airlock burst out through the opening into the vacuum beyond, carrying the kheldian with it.

Taking a moment to orient himself, he launched off in pursuit of the asteroids. A streak of silver chasing the deeper crimson ones piercing the atmosphere.

(( A little late on account of life conspiring against meh! D: ))
Galaxy City, seconds before impact...

"Look," Dr. Brock Capello sighed to Ned. "All I'm saying is that is that you can't just write off a whole sitcom just because the whole cast are portrayed as a bunch of morons. That's the whole point!"

The duo had just left a local convenience store, the big man himself hauling stack of grocery-filled paper bags that towered over his own head, a balancing act that could have been made all the more impressive were it not for his cybernetic arms. Aside him, Ned, a small Council MekMan no higher than the doctor's waist, rebuilt from the remains of a much larger MekMan that had the audacity to storm his lab months prior, struggled to carry just the one.

Ned emitted a series of clicks and bleeps in response as they crossed a nearby road on the way back to the lab. Only Brock seemed to understand him crystal-clearly while passers-by gave confused and mildly concerned looks, both at his form as well as his manner of 'speech'.

"Yep, little guy." Capello answered. "And that's why it's called a sit..."

Ned tilted his head at Brock as he slowly cut himself off and looked to the skies. Something was wrong, but it wasn't immediately clear to the small MekMan until he attempted to trace the general direction of the doctor's line of sight. That's when he noticed several red dots in the sky. He'd never noticed them before. Nor, did it seem, had Capello.

And they were getting bigger very fast.

"...com. Yeah, that's not good."

Ned jumped up and down on the spot, flailing his limbs and screeching out more clicks and bleeps out of blind panic before the doctor grabbed him by the arms to steady him.

"Ned!" he barked. "Dammit, Ned! Stay calm and focus! I need you to get back to the lab, use the Central Rig, alright?"

Ned appeared as confused as an almost-faceless machine could appear. The Central Rig, the server within Brock's lab that governed all its other systems had been off-limits to all but the doctor for some time. That Ned was being granted access worried the robot greatly.

"Password's 547231756d7068616e37. Once you're in, run blockbuster.sh, got it, little guy?"

The Mini-MekMan confirmed with a rapid nod and, once set down onto the ground again, proceeded to rush off back to the lab, having the sense to leave his burden of milk bottles behind.

Brock returned his attention to the red dots in the sky once more. Through his artificial eyes he'd already traced their trajectory, realising all too well that Galaxy City was about to get a cosmic punch in the face. He grabbed the shoulder of his beige long coat and tore it from his back without a single care for its well-being. It was going to be torn to shreds in moment anyway, he figured.

The man who would become Dr. Block took a calm sidestep to the right, predicting his new position to be the closest safe spot out of reach of the blast radius of the imminent impacts around him. It was all he could do until Ned triggered that script.

****

Molly Longstaff's apartment, Galaxy City, hours before impact.

Julia Cravic hadn't counted on feeling a newspaper lightly bouncing off her forehead any time soon, not while she was, for the next few weeks at least, living under her boss's roof. After all, the apartment of Molly Longstaff was a technological wonderland compared to her own place, which was currently being renovated and reinforced after a neighbour failed to keep an eye on his chip pan. In place of magazines and newspapers were a few tablet devices, which left the young secretary wondering why he was being beaten back into the waking world.

Then she remembered she'd invited her boyfriend to sleep over for the night. He wasn't a fan of replacing print with pixels any time soon and for good reason too, Julia had to admit.

"Rise and shine!" she barely heard Bob Lead, a news stand owner from a small corner of Atlas, proudly proclaim before she even had a chance to pull herself into a seating position. "Your clock's battery died when I got up myself. I figured you didn't want to be late for work, after all."

"Thanks, I guess." Julia groaned "What time's it now?"

"Almost half five." Bob muttered before bringing the mug of coffee in his other hand to his lips.

"HALF-FIVE!?" she answered, raising her voice sharply enough to make the man in her life jump mid-sip and send hot coffee splashing into his face. "Dammit, Bob, you do remember that Erica would have come in to check anyway, right?"

"Yep." Bob sighed. Julia let herself fall back into bed, grabbing a pillow and promptly dumping it onto her own face. "Relax and think about it, Jules. What if that thing broke down?"

Julia simply responded with a soft pillow projectile on collision course with Bob's back.

Molly Longstaff's apartment, Galaxy City, moments before impact.

"You look a wreck." Molly observed, and to Julia's irritation she was right. As always.

"Sorry," she answered. "Bob thought he'd do a 'good thing' by getting me up at half five."

"Didn't he know that Erica wou-?"

"Yeah," Julia interrupted. "He worried that she broke down. Oh, and referred to her as a 'thing', too."

"Cue arguement?"

"Cue arguement, Miss Molly." Erica answered before Julia could do so herself. The robot butler, an 8-foot feminine android arrived almost on cue herself with a couple of fresh mugs of coffee. The contents of the mug offered to Julia were as black as tar and its caffeinated scent gave the secretary a much-needed pickup long before she took her first sip.

"Thanks, Erica." Julia discarded her tablet onto the hot pink sofa behind her before claiming her cup. "Yeah, Bob's not too approving of Erica. Frankly, it's getting on my nerves now."

Molly herself accepted her beverage and found herself a seat on the sofa opposite. It was a credit to Julia's tiredness that she hadn't realised until now that Molly was wearing a party dress, as ever in a colour that matched her boss's bright pink hair.

"People are bound to be nervous around her, Julia." Molly smiled. "Just give him time to get to know her better, trust me."

"True, I suppose." Julia conceded. "But it would be nice, you know? If he just accepted that Erica was sentient enough to -not- be looked at as a mere machine?"

"Which I am, miss." Erica answered. Julia always thought she was bring modest.

"I mean if he stops referring to you as..." Julia stopped herself when something caught her eye. Something foreign in the daytime sky that both Molly and Erica soon came to notice.

The next thing Julia remembered was the coffee failing her momentarily. She awoke from her microsleep to find herself bundled in Erica's arms, distressingly unaware of what was happening as she also soon deafened by the unexplained noise that assaulted her ears.

And then everything went black again.

(( To be continued when I get chance to bash out some more ))

((Moar lateness...))
Several minutes post-impact...

"Richie..."

Richie Stacker, also known as the Crazy Dragon, found himself greeted by blurry silhouette hanging over him, shoulder-length red hair being the only thing immediately recognisable to him.

"Gimme five more minutes, will you, Mo?" he groaned as he rolled over and closed his eyes again, much to his girlfriend's frustration. So she promptly kicked him.

"Dammit, Richie!" she barked. The bed didn't simply rattle to the sudden boot it had received, it shifted a few inches and threw the Durham lad's face against the wall. "When I tell you to get up, you'll get... the HELL... UP!!"

"Ow, man, Mo!" Richie cried as he clutched his nose. "What the flamin' hell's the emergency?"

"Try looking out what's left of the window." another voice grumbled. "It appears the city is under attack."

Blinking a few times to clear up his eyes, Richie then complied. The disembodied voice was right. Where the window to his bedroom once was, a large gaping hole now remained and outside, as Richie quickly discovered to his horror, Galaxy City was getting hammered by meteorites all over.

"We really need to get out of here," Momo Serizawa sighed with a heavy heart. Behind her, the source of the voice that directed him to the 'window', his Praetorian double, Richard was leaning against cracked doorframe, calm and collected as ever. "Preferably before one of those rocks decided to hit this place again."

Richie turned and glanced around the room in search of something. For a sharp exit, he quickly figured, breaking open a portal into the pocket dimension Thin Air and sending everyone he could to the Obsidian Fortress couldn't be quicker. He just needed to find the lens he needed to boost the spell enough to open a large enough portal for long enough. Frantically, he searched under the bed, scrambled to the wardrobe and cleared out a couple of bookcases until...

"Ow!" Momo squealed. Ever-protective of her, Richie swung around to see what happened, only to find his girlfriend glaring at him disapprovingly, lens in hand and nursing the top of her head. Above, a small box fixed to the wall above the door had burst open.

"Ah, right, the box up there." Richie muttered as he accepted the lens from the irritated Mo. "Sorry. Richard, find my folks and anyone else stupid enough to be stuck in this building and bring the buggers over here."

****

The apartment of Molly Longstaff, or what's left of it...

Julia awoke with a pounding headache and a mouthful of dust that took a few good coughs to clear out. And, for some reason, a very heavy burden upon her.

"Erica?" Julia groaned. As she called out to the robot butler, she struggled to free one of her arms from under herself in order to brush some stray hair aside. "Do you think you can get off me, now?"

Erica complied without fail and picked herself up from the floor. "My apologies, Miss Julia."

"It's okay, really." the secretary reassured her as she dragged herself to her feet, only to be struck by a short dizzy spell after getting up too fast. "What just happened, any-"

Looking past Erica explained all, right down to the fact that of the entirety of her boss' apartment... There wasn't much left.

"-way? Oh my god."

It was then that Molly stuck her head around the corner leading bout of the apartment. "Get your prayers out of the way as soon as you can think straight, Jules, because we need to get out of here before this whole building decides to crash down on us all."

Julia gave her boss a curious look as well as noted that her dress was tattered all over. She then compared the state of her own attire which, thanks to Erica, saw just the tiniest of tears at the based of her skirt.

"Right." Julia concurred. "Let's make like a tree, then."

"Oh, and by the way," Molly added. "Tell me you're armed."

Julia sighed. "Don't tell me some monsters have come out to play..."

"Yep, we're probably gonna need to do a little hunting along the way. I'm getting reports from all over. There's Shivans all over, practically coming out of the damn walls."

****

Down on the streets...

Incoming call. Accept? ... Y

Accepted. Call type: DATA
Downloading 459MB... Done!
Open Kickstart.zip? ... Y

Contents of Kickstart.zip:
STAGE2.tar.gz
STAGE2.sh

cmd: extractall
Destination: /home/DocBrock/Kickstart
Extracting... Done!

exit
sudo /home/DocBrock/Kickstart/STAGE2.sh
Password:**************

Running...

A pile of rubble in the middle of the street, right between the epicentre of several meteorite impacts, erupted like a lava-less volcano, revealing underneath a roaring Dr. Capello, slightly battered, his cybernetic parts a little scratched and dented but otherwise unharmed.

"Alright, Ned, I'm good to go." he called out to his absent robotic friend over the airwaves. "Get yourself outta there before something hits the fan a few more times. I'm gonna go work out what the hell just happened and if there's anything I can help with. And if there's blood to be shed in the process, so be it."