Case File 3

[ghostin_myshell]

[One of the first to run out in a spacesuit is the Major, who was very much unaffected to begin with. Her Sphere darts around after her as she hacks away at the baleen with a very effective laser knife that she stole borrowed took without permission and the intention of eventually returning.]The way I look at it, we need to find a way to open up

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[big_sis_lcie]

[A second laser cutter flares up further away from Motoko. Lightning had shaken off the unnatural euphoria easily enough cause she's that darn crabby and has emerged from the ship as well to try to cut away the balleen.

Hmf. It would be a lot easier if we could just blast our way out....

[She slices away some more baleen then stops and frowns at her surroundings.]

At this rate we'll never even cut the ships free. We either need everybody out here or... is there any kind of industrial equipment on the Hawking that we can use for this? Maybe in conjunction with those combat mechas.

[ghostin_myshell]

Those mechas might make faster work of the baleen, but I don't think there's enough people that have all their wits about them right now. As for industrial equipment, there's nothing large enough, unless Farix knows of something hidden away or someone builds something.

[big_sis_lcie]

Great... and that's not even considering how to get out of its mouth before everyone roasts to death.

[She scowls at a thick patch of fibers and steps back a few paces and swings her arm out, the shimmering white and black sphere of a Ruinga spell impacting the center of the mass and blowing it apart.]

So first we need to find out who else has snapped out of... whatever that was.

[ghostin_myshell]

Precisely, and the sooner we get out of here, the better.

[stops to tinker around with her knife for a few minutes and succeeds in breaking the safety, thus extending and broadening it]

That's part of what my broadcast was intended to do. So far, I've found you and one other.

[big_sis_lcie]

[Has largely abandoned the laser knife in favor of her Blazefire Saber, using the larger weapon to hack away the larger chunks of baleen and using the knife for smaller pieces or more delicate work.]

Right. ... So first things first, we get the ships flying again. If all else fails we at least have the guns then.

[ghostin_myshell]

Right, but in every experience I've had with the Corp., we'll have to exercise every single possibility before hurting the animal.

[big_sis_lcie]

Believe it or not, I'd prefer it that way myself.

[Another blast of magic breaks apart yet one more mass of baleen, Ruin spells proving to be the most effective in the vacuum of space.]

Either way, this isn't going to be an easy week....

[ghostin_myshell]

I'd rather not have to consider the option again.

[still slashing away, and now her puppet, Conan, is nearby to help out]

And if my guess is correct, this is only the beginning of our problems. As far as that Hyperstring Gate is concerned, it's nothing but trouble.

[big_sis_lcie]

[Just nods in agreement to that and lets the subject slide for now. As far as she's concerned it's the final desperation move.]

That's something to look forward to. I get the feeling we got off easy this time.

[ghostin_myshell]

It's certainly better than traveling toward a black hole and failing to escape it.

[Ahhh, fun times were had back in the day...]

[big_sis_lcie]

[Pauses in her work to stare at the Sphere floating near her. She doesn't say it but if there was ever an expression that meant "You're shitting me, right?" it would be the one she has now.]

[ghostin_myshell]

[Motoko wishes she was joking... but she'll explain a little as she works.]

Ten years ago, I was yanked from my own universe and onto the Crucible. In three different scenarios we were headed straight for a black hole, and twice we were pulled into it. One other time before I arrived, from what I was told. Normally, it's not something we could have survived, but there was something else at work then that's still difficult to explain.

[big_sis_lcie]

[Lightning's expression of disbelief faded into a frown. She'd never read much into what happened in a black hole but beautiful sounding terms like "spaghettification" pretty much spelled out everything she needed to know about it.]

Hn.

[She goes back to her work, chopping away baleen.]

What do you mean "scenarios"?

...holy tl;dr Batman

[ghostin_myshell]

[Plot exposition is go! If you haven't suspended your disbelief already, now would be the time.]When I arrived, the ship had crashed on a planet called Eos and was a ways off the shore, completely wrecked. A month and a half from when I came, what could be best described as miniature black holes appeared around the planet's surface, some moved, most of them grew. Eventually, a black hole appeared in the sky above the planet. It grew larger and larger, but our attempts to escape failed as we couldn't get the DNA sample required to start the rescue shuttle. So we were stuck on the planet, forced to watch as the smaller black holes ate up the usable land and the bigger one in the sky consumed us all. For most of us, the next thing we remember happening is waking up on the Crucible. It looked as if nothing had happened to it, and the Captain who was found dead from the impact was alive and making an announcement over the Sphere Network. However, no one could remember the black hole. For the next three months, we encountered incident after