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

Comments

[blacks_lackey]

[He's now at the point where he's miserable.] It'd be kinder to the creature if we could get it to sneeze or cough. We need to become an irritant.

[ghostin_myshell]

And how do you propose that be put into action?

[blacks_lackey]

[he's having trouble caring, to be honest.] I don't know, everything has sensitive areas. Like a tonsil of some kind. There will be a lot of mucus around the area.

[ghostin_myshell]

Would you mind exploring? I'm busy, but I can send one of my puppet bodies to go with you if you want to take one of the combat mechs out.

[oliverplus]

[unfortunately, Oliver's mind isn't eager to let go of the euphoria, so he's still very much under its effects]

Motoko, you're worrying about this way too much! The whale doesn't want us here, so it'll get us out on its own soon enough.

[ghostin_myshell]

[...you are so getting an unimpressed lineface right now B|]

In case you haven't noticed, it's not exactly getting any cooler here. As for the whale, I doubt it even knows it picked up three Alliance ships with everything else it ate. We are microscopic compared to this thing and I doubt it will simply let us go.

[oliverplus]

[is completely oblivious to that right now, sorry]

Then the Doctor'll find a way to communicate with it, or one of the commanders will work out a solution. There's still no reason to panic!

[ghostin_myshell]

I'm not waiting for Menaeus or Farix to come up with a solution when we haven't heard from them for days. As for the Doctor, how do you expect him to communicate with this thing? Does he speak Space Whale?

One more thing, I'm not panicking.

[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.

[bit_impossible]

[the Doctor has recovered very quickly thanks to that nose of his--as well as his too-clever brain that had tried to delude him into thinking the TARDIS was really there.]

Yep, I'm, well...[quickly] I'm me. How's it going out there, Motoko?

[of course he has ideas, but he wants to see how the others act first. he wants to see if they can redeem themselves from their actions during the anti-Alliance attack...]

[ghostin_myshell]

Doctor, good to see you have your senses back.

Things are moving very slowly with very few people trying to free the ships right now. Temperature-wise, it's not exactly cooler outside than inside.

[bit_impossible]

Back? Never realised they'd run away.

[frowns] They could be hidden, or slow to recover. Maybe a bit of both, but to be fair, from the looks of things, there seems to be a lot to cut away.

[ghostin_myshell]

Almost everyone on board was acting strange. Unless I'm wrong, you were among them. [and by that she means overly cheerful and hallucinating]

With luck, they won't take too much longer to recover. Time isn't exactly on our side here. There is a lot to cut, enough to tangle up three very large ships.

[chappi_fan]

[Knowing the situation has helped Rukia to snap out of the happy-times, focusing on the problems at hand. She's moving quickly through the corridors and heading towards her quarters.]

I will be able to help cut the ship free shortly. However, I know little of means to escape the creature. It will be difficult to cause a creature so large to open its mouth.

[ghostin_myshell]

Even if you don't know how doesn't mean you can't help others test their ideas. Still, the more help we have to cut the ships loose for now, the better. And don't forget to find something to cut the baleen. Make sure it's sharp and won't break, because this stuff is very tough.

[chappi_fan]

That is not a problem.

I am on my way. Where are the space-suits kept?

[ghostin_myshell]

Anywhere between Sectors 18 and 24. There are airlocks you can exit from in the same area.