Serenity: Hard Rain Falling

[Neftren]

"You know... we could always try that funny stunt in that movie eh? Where the guy jumps out the cargo hatch onto a moving train? We wouldn't even have to bother with landing. Okay, just kidding, but I wonder... have we heard of anything about them recently? Are we even sure they're still down there?"

[Voshkod]

Quatermain put down his empty cup, picks up some protein, and sniffs it suspiciously.

"Don't worry about our seat - we're the last ride out. We'll meet up with Lucky Gal and Steerage just outside of Alliance sensor range, and then head in. Some of our ships have promised a diversion. We know there are still friendlies on the ground and we know they're in trouble, if the increasing whimpering over our channels is any indication. Once we meet up with the others will have a final landing point."

He lets the protein slurp back down onto the plate. "Is this crate ready for it? Engines going to give us full-burn when we need it?"

[Voshkod]

Far Orbit - New Kashmir

The lump of rock has no real name. A collection of iron and carbon, once mined, now a pitted little mass in a far orbit around New Kashmir. Just heavy enough to keep you off Alliance sensors. The comm bands are alight with traffic, the high-pitched whine of encrypted Alliance chatter, the low grumble of the cyphered Browncoat comms, and the distant ghostly voices of the troops on the ground. "Fall back, we cannot hold the line . . . you have to hold it there, I don't care if you . . . ."

From the cockpit, you can see Lucky Gal, another Firefly-class under Captain Jake Robard, and Steerage, an ore-hauler commanded by Captain Hwang Lu. Both vessels are hugging the asteroid closely, waiting for the promised diversion.

Down in the engine room, everything seems to be running at 100%. For now.

[Brickwall]

Quin

In the cockpit, Quin is smoothly keeping the Joy's speed and alignment perfect to stay behind the mining lump. Too far off the center, and a stray scanner could ruin this thing before it begins. She seems pretty tense, but it's not from the difficulty of the task at hand, which is quite minimal. It's more the one coming up.

"Come on, come on, where's our distraction? Every second we wait is another one of ours stuck kissin' the dirt forever."

[Voshkod]

The radio crackles to life. Bursts of loud static, then a booming voice: "This is cruiser Bremerton to unidentified vessel approach on azimuth zero three zero. Identify yourself immediately, you are in a quarantine area." A long pause. Then a new voice. "Go to hell, thug!"

"That's it," Quatermain says. "Roll us out, and you'd better give us every bit of power you've got. The landing coordinates are in the computer."

[Brickwall]

Quin

Quin exhales, and flips three overhead switches. She moves a lever forward, and the ship hums to life instantly. The glowing bulb in the rear flares, and the Siren's Joy takes off.

Without the benefit of the satellite, the comm roars to life with chatter. Independent ships beginning their run, and unsecured Alliance channels going back and forth. But Quin doesn't hear them. All she knows is the ship. She finds a gap in the brigade and makes her run. The ship's going as hard as it can without full burn. Time to punch through.

[Bushwhacked]

When she feels a sharp bank, Elizabeth quickly remembers the box of needles she left of the side in the infirmary, from the shots she gave to the crew earlier.
She darts from her seat in the Galley and tumbles down the stairs towards the infirmary.

[Brickwall]

Quin

The Siren's Joy closes on the open space in the defenses. Open being a relative term, of course. Alliance and their big fleet, have more'n enough ships to spare to make sure every spot's covered. This one doesn't even have a cruiser in range, though. Just some gunships. Probably piloted by "crack" Alliance hotheads.

Idiots.

Quin doesn't even need to make a glance to notice that a couple of them turn on her. The Joy's definitely an Independent vessel, and the warning stage has gone by. Warnings flare off, they're getting a heat lock. Best way to track a ship for missiles. Nothing much that's hot out in the black, so they won't get confused. Evading them should require downright impossible luck or more skills than any computer could hope to imitate. Quin already knows she's got the latter.

She flips a set of switches, and the proximity alarm politely shuts itself up. She'll need the silence. The Joy veers hard directly at one of the gunships. The lock's getting solid. Once it's full, nothin'll stop them from firing missiles. Their loss. Quin pulls off from her fake game of chicken to the side of one of the gunship she was toying with. She timed the lock just right. Bright flares in the corners of her eyes mean that both the gunships she saw had just fired. She streaks past unafraid, and the missiles don't pursue. Unfortunately, they fired at exactly the moment they were facing each other, and seekers tend to have trouble differentiating one heat source from another. Both the gunships go aflame from their ally's warheads. No way they'll establish a new lock before Quin gets away. Time to hit atmo and rescue some soldiers.

[Neftren]

"Nice flyin' there Quin. Lets just hope the LZ isn't as hot as our reception up here was. My saying that probably just jinxed it too..." He then trips and falls over as a piece of debris detonated relatively close to the ship. "Hey... are you sure we're safe in this thing?"

[Ellas Aramond]

"He wants more power? I'll give him more pow...gorram hell!" Axel begins to growl at Quartermain's order before one of Quinn's maneuvers knocks him onto his side.

"What's that stupid kid doing?" he grumbles as he gets to his feet, moving over to the spinning engine and doing his best to coax a tiny bit more speed from it. "She's gonna get us killed."

[Brickwall]

Quin

"You're still alive, aren't you? Save your whine for when we're in some real f'n zse. Let's touch down and pray we can find another relative clear spot when we come on out."

Quin slowly adjusts her feel for atmo. She flips on the comm.

"Okay, kids, we're gonna be hittin' us some world soon, so hang on. Anyone feelin' likely to lose their lunch, get yourself a bucket."

[Sicarius]

Keith

Sitting in the corner of the dining room, eyes closed, hands securely grabbing whatever they could find, Keith is crosslegged and chanting slowly. When the ship turns, Keith attempts to turn his body so he doesn't bang his head into anything.

"Exaltabo te Deus meus rex et benedicam nomini tuo in saeculum et in saeculum saeculi per singulos dies benedicam tibi et laudabo nomen tuum in saeculum et in saeculum saeculi."

Keith wasn't very religious, and all who knew him knew that he liked the Latin translations because they sounded mysterious.

[Syka]

Fallon

Fal has curled herself in a corner of her bunk, making herself as small as possible, and surrounded herself with pillows. Her walls are fairly sparse, no family photos or anything, and only a few souvenirs from her time in the Black. The less she has, the more she likes. But the pillows are her one vice. Not only are they comfy, but they come in mighty useful for rides like this one. She's also trying to read a battered book she picked up somewhere along her travels, but all the jolts aren't helping and her concentration is already ruined because of the upcoming task, even though she isn't directly involved.

[Voshkod]

Spinning like a twig in the rapids, Joy drops toward atmo. Behind, Lucky Gal flies between two spires of the Alliance cruiser, hugging the metal surface of the massive ship. Steerage just bulls through, shrugging off missile hits on its heavy sides.

The engine is whining loudly, throwing off heat and sparks, but giving that extra edge that just might . . . .

WHUMP

Joy lurches forward as a missile detonates in her wake. She goes into a wild spin just at atmo interface, the window showing planet . . . space . . . planet . . . space in quick succession. Internal gravity struggles to compensate for the sudden spin.

Down in the medbay, supplies go spilling out over Elizabeth. Protein packs rush across the floor, and then the ceiling, of the dining room. Lights flare up in the engine room along with a dozen small alarms, and in Fallon's quarters, she's suddenly very glad for all the pillows as she bounces around.

[Tricycle_Knight]

During the landing, Bianca goes to her bunk and begins to load up her weapons, taking with her several extra clips of ammunition. She grabs a small pendant off of her nightstand, and drapes it around her neck, giving it a quick kiss for luck. She heads back up to the bridge when she's finished, and surveys the situation.

"Alright everyone...remember, try not to occupy the same space of the enemies' bullets."

[Sicarius]

Keith

Suiting up, Keith grabs everything he's going to need for the classic rescue. "Sounds like a plan, cap." When no one's looking, Keith grabs his lucky dice and gives them a quick toss.

Spoiler

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(1d6)[4]
(1d6)[6]

EDIT: "Huh...10 the soft way? What the heck does that mean?"

[Neftren]

The deck rocks yet again. You hear a clatter as Rusty falls flat on his face a second time. You then here some muffled cursing.

"Here we go again..."

[Voshkod]

Dropping into the atmosphere like a burning stone, Siren's Joy levels out. Down in the engine room, there's a high pitched whine coming from a feedback line.

Up on the bridge, there's music suddenly over the comms. An old frontier song, coming high and clear. Easy to home in on. As you break the high clouds, heading toward the battle, you can see it easily in the night. A small peninsula sticking out into the ocean, alight with fire and flashes. A pair of red rockets launch skyward, marking the landing zone. Lucky Gal, skewing slightly left, and Steerage are on your wings.

[Brickwall]

Quin

Quin breathes a sigh of relief. Clear for a bit.

"Okay, I gotta keep the ship ready for takeoff. You guys don't die out there, 'kay?"

[Voshkod]

Siren's Joy touches down softly on New Kashmir. Those in the cockpit can see browncoated rebels falling back toward the ships, firing as they go, while just beyond, in the dust clouds raised by the fighting, large shapes are moving purposefully forward, fire belching from their muzzles.

[OOC: OK, everyone should post where they are and what they're doing before things get hot.]

[Neftren]

Seeing the ground below, Rusty dashes to the cargo hold, preparing to hit sky... or rather... ground. Once in the cargo hold, he makes some last minute checks on his pistol, sniper rifle and Gilgamesh Shotgun. He then grabs his sword and prepares to drop into a live-fire combat zone.

[Sicarius]

Keith

Keith, ready with his assault rifle, joins Rusty in getting ready to go to the CZ. He starts humming an old Earth-That-Was battle hymn.

[Bushwhacked]

Takes a quick moment to clear what she can in the infirmary before taking a roost spot on the gang plank above the door. Her plan is to keep out of sight of the various hard things that will be flying in from out there and direct the passengers as they enter.

[Brickwall]

Quin

Quin busily administrates the landing, and preps the cargo door to open from the cockpit.

"Soon as we hit the ground, that door's going open. Get ready."

[Ellas Aramond]

Axel remains in the engine room, making a last few tweaks to the machinery.

"Engine's hot and running." he says over the intercom, patting his hip to make sure his derringer is still there. "Just say the word before we shove off."

[Voshkod]

"Captain?," Quartermain asks quietly. "You have any orders here?"

[Syka]

Fal remains in her bunk, putzing around getting her pillows back in order now that they have landed. Seeing as she isn't having to fight to keep her balance anymore, she settles down to read that book she wasn't able to pay attention to during the descent.

Knowing what is going on out there, Fallon still keeps her pistol ready on her lap. Just a precaution in this heated combat zone.

[Voshkod]

The Captain rushes over to the back door and slams down the button to lower the ramp. The sound of battle, explosions, screams, and the dull roar of tanks fills the cargo hold. "Let's go and secure . . . ." she shouts, and 10 nanometers of coherent light punches into her frontal lobe. The Captain falls back on the deck, steam escaping from the hole punched in her skull, and all hell breaks loose.

[Neftren]

Rusty immediately takes action, crying out, "Everyone take cover! Keith, shoot at anything that moves and you're sure isn't one of ours. Got it? Somebody get me the gorram doctor!"

He then surveys the situation, attempting to locate enemy soldiers as well as get the scope of the outside world. If he determines that it's safe enough to cross the hold, he will dash out to retrieve the Captain's body and attempt to perform First Aid if she's still alive.

Spoiler

Show

Perception Roll: (1d10)[7] to do some scouting.
Medical Expertise Roll: (1d8)[3] to try and stabilize the captain.

If the captain is dead or has suffered a fatal/debilitating injury, then I will go for my guns.

[Sicarius]

Keith

"Cap!" Keith exclaims, taking cover the second the shot hit. Once Rusty moves out, Keith leans out and lets loose a barrage of suppressive fire, trying to keep the enemy pinned down so that Rusty can reach the captain.