FTL: Harmony Edition IC

Although greatly alarmed, Emblem couldn't help but think on the situation rapidly. Of course, not all of his pondering was coherent... certainly, the fact that the tool of both creation and destruction seemed to be somewhat following in his steps, wasn't filling him with enthusiasm to say the least. Whether it was due to the enemy up high, trying to scorch him, with a great amount of pleasure to it or due to the very nature of the prototype artifact he was holding... he was worried. Were that to continue, his chances of taking off from this planet's surface were likely to melt down... let alone those of him, even reaching the starport. Still, if that much was being engaged just to get what he was currently holding, then it proved all the more it was worth trying to salvage. No matter if for the safety of others or for the triumph of modern science. This thing was going straight to the right hooves. Emblem very much doubted that he'd find such a pair above... speaking of which, he risked a brief glance upwards, just to see whether anything beside the rays of destruction were in sight. The situation which broke out shortly afterwards made him forget about that for now though. As the unicorn spotted the chances for escaping via the main route shrinking rapidly, he hestitated little in changing the course, dashing into one of the side alleys. Anything to get oneself away from the shower of razor-sharp shards, if only for a moment... it begged the question of how to reach the starport though. Recalling what few memories he had from his peaceful walk this way and trusting his geographical orientation to lead him, if need be, he galloped down what he deemed as the right path.*

*Streetwise check: 18 + d20 (9) = 27

Once again Seva found themselves trying to figure out the best course of action. They had not anticipated – though perhaps they should have – the effects of the fire on the more dangerous chemicals they kept on hand. Seva's memory functions tried to save this to their neural network as they considered what to do next. Clean Cut had all but flat out indicated that Strongheart had entered the hospital again, perhaps from Seva's prompting. Perhaps warning him had not been the best idea.

However, perhaps this could be rectified. After all, if Seva pursued Strongheart and assisted in a recovery of Swabs, their survival chances would increase, and by extension, if they survived, having more medical practitioners would ensure a higher survival rate for others. That was assuming Seva was able to locate and evacuate or find a way of protecting the doctors before the volatile substances ignited. And if all three of them were lost, then that left Clean Cut... But if Seva left now, that meant at least one more medical personnel would be on hand. And while Seva was not a certified doctor, they were qualified in numerous methods of medical practice.

Looking over the children, a part of Seva – a self-serving, hungry part of them – briefly surged in influence at the thought of the taste of gratitude from helping the children, and how much more easily that could be acquired compared to going after the doctors. That was quickly quashed by other sectors of their being. Nutrition and sustenance were important yes, but it was no reason to leave behind the doctors. One of the pillars of Seva's being was reinforced: the service of a unit was meant to be for the hive. The hive did not serve the unit. Selfless service was the true path of life.

With that aside though, what was the correct approach? High risk, high reward, or take the safer option?

Seva's attention again briefly lingered on the children. That they still were around her instead of following after Clean Cut and the adults added another variable into the ACHE's calculations. The continuity might help the children if Seva continued to lead them to the starport. A quick projection based on the current situation and a check on previous experiences with youths yielded the thought that they would need as much stability as possible. They tended to need adults. And while Seva was not personally experienced in child care accept as an assistant, they could temporarily watch over them until relatives were contacted or a more qualified foal-sitter was found.

""All of you, follow us as quickly as you can,"" Seva ordered, making sure they had the attention of all them, pointing a hoof at themselves before indicating their destination, ""We are going to the star port.""

<<Alert, Panacea staff. Explosion imminent, evacuate immediately,>> Seva signalled. If there was a chance that urging could help either of the doctors to get out sooner...

Seva kept their attention divided between what was in front and the rear, glancing back and forth. The front to make sure they followed Clean Cut's lead and avoided other obstacles. The rear, not only to make sure they kept an eye on the children, but also to glance back at the burning hospital.

<<Alert, Panacea staff. Explosion imminent, evacuate immediately,>>

Was it a mistake to attempt to alert Strongheart earlier? In their attempt to increase their odds of survival, had Seva doomed them both instead?

<<Alert, Panacea staff. Explosion imminent, please evacuate immediately,>>

There was absolutely no change in Seva's dispassionate tone, but the single addition to their repeated warnings was a crack that started to show the effect of the stressful situation on the ACHE. Seva continued to broadcast their alert to the doctors as they ran.

Borealis briefly contemplates trying to charge the barrier - but turning to see his new companion run into a side street, the minotaur realizes that following the main path, when there are already so many crystals, would likely be more dangerous than a side path. Plus, he could shield the unicorn with the hardlight, and by taking the crystals into the alleyways, it'll buy more time for the civilians to escape.

He turns and runs forward, in fact grabbing the unicorn by the barrel and saying, "Sorry, but I can probably run fast than you can - just focus on navigating these crazy backalleys-" He throws up a hardlight shield behind them, keeping it moving close behind so it'll constantly shield them from the advancing crystals "-before those crystals catch up to us!"

Rolls:

Seva
As Seva runs, the children follow, many of them relieved to have left the burning hospital, but a few of the colts, old enough to take an interest in weapons and ship technology, notice the dark shadow in the sky and begin to realize just how dire the situation had become. When the group reaches a relatively safe distance from the hospital, Seva notices what looks like two shapes, hazy in the smoke, crash out of a window - just as the entire hospital explodes outwards, flames consuming the entire structure and sending the outer walls toppling outwards, onto the two figures. Clean Cut, a short distance away, seems to blink repeatedly, roughly rubbing a hoof across his eyes before leading the patients forward with renewed determination. "We should get there before the ships fill up - the rest of the evacuees will need doctors as well." He says, before turning to continue directing the evacuation, pointing the patients towards the port - already fairly packed with people, but there seems to be enough ships to accommodate most of them - visible in the distance.

Seva feels a tap at their side, and looks down to see a filly. "Excuse me, miss...mister... um? what's going on? Why are we all leaving?"

---

Belgond
Golden Gears flushes red and looks away, but doesn't respond, although she does seem to mouth something unintelligible. Once Belgond makes it to the window, he spies a relatively untouched strip of road that he could probably set as the teleporter destination.

---

Copperette
Gristle smiles, doing her strange hobble-run forward and keeping close to Copperette. "Course, ya won't be gettin rid of me that easy. Gristle sticks around her pack, thank ya very much - Copperette! Wait!"

Copperette rounds a corner in the street and dashes straight ahead - despite Gristle skidding to a halt. The reason for this, which Copperette somehow is entirely oblivious to, is that the streets are a veritable firestorm, scorching hot. Too late, Copperette realizes the error of her ways, as a wave of heat engulfs her, and though the tongues of flame have yet to touch her, the panic is starting to set it. Fire surrounds her on all sides, the crackling distorting all outside noise - she'll have to take a leap of faith and hope Gristle's on the other side of the flames.

OOC: Roll 1d8 for a direction and... endurance to not panic under the heat and pressure.

---

Borealis Emblem
Borealis, though moving blindingly quickly between alleyways, still manages to steer his way through the side streets according to Emblem's instructions, all without allowing the crystal to even get remotely close - one time the crystals got within a few paces of Borealis, but with a slam of hardlight the crystal was forced back, buying them the time needed for Emblem to point Borealis down a corner into another main street, this one leading directly to the port - it's right at the end of the street, if they run they could make it in a few minutes. However, there seems to be a sizable crowd gathered around the port entrances.
As they approach the port, Emblem hears the ship's crew contact him through the communications link, "Damn it, Emblem come in, we're at maximum capacity! The people are getting really restless - we can't hold off any longer - we'll jump to the nearest safe beacon, but I can't guarantee we'll make it back in time... you'll have to get off-world by the evacuation ships - sorry!" That's all he hears before the roar of an FTL drive drowns out of the feed.

Copperette was panicking, for the second time that day in a thousand years. Granny was gone, left behind. Fire was all around. She couldn't see much, could hear less. The bubbly pink pony's instructions came back to her:

"But what if I don't know where to run? What if there's nowhere to run?" Copperette had asked.

"Run anywhere!" the pink one had said, with a disturbing nonchalance. "If you run randomly, you might not make it... But if you stay put you definitely won't make it, see?"

Copperette turned around, making her best guess as to which way she had come from, and bolted...

Checks:

While he couldn't make out a word of what Golden was saying, Belgond couldn't stop the large smile that was on his face for the life of him. While he knew for a fact that today was going to be remembered as a dark day for the Concord Harmonia is general and even more so for the ponies and other beings that lost family, loved ones and everything that they had spent their whole lives building, Belgond himself had not only not lost anything to the attack, there was a good chance that he might have a wonderful marefriend at the end of the day provided that they both got out of here. Was this selfish thinking? Yes, but right now he needed to cling to the bright and positive to stop himself from being consumed by the horror and disrepair of this unprovoked, genocidal attack.

Spying a save enough place to teleport to, Belgond started to charge up the power source in his chest to fuel his teleporter for something a bit more... advanced then what he had shown off to Golden a bit earlier. Turning his head to look at Golden, his grin was huge as he asked "Remember how earlier I said I was going to show off the teleporter a bit more?" Without much more warning, both Belgond and Golden would vanish in a flash of light, only to reappear side by side outside of the building on the clear patch of road that he had set the jump to.

A look of discomfit would cross Belgond's features for a moment as he felt just how warm his cybernetics had gotten; The heat was still within the acceptable level, if slightly uncomfortable, but he wouldn't be able to do any of the more advanced functions of the teleporter again for a few hours until the whole system cooled down enough for him to do so safely; Cooking ones own insides was not fun after all. Taking a deep breath in order to both calm himself and to prepare himself for what he was about to do, Belgond turned to look at Golden and smile. "Well then, I think now would be a good time to start running for it to catch up with the others. Sounds like a plan?" There was something about running that felt natural to Belgond; Most likely something to do with primeval pony kind running away from predators. Now seemed like a good time to follow their proud example and run in a two pony herd.

Actions/ Dice rolls:

There was a brief spike in Seva's being as they witnessed the figures escaping the building, several runtimes already making calculations for how to handle the situation with the doctors being alive. And then just as quickly, as the building fell, many of them stopped – a few even continued for a moment afterwords as it took time for what was witnessed to sink in. Their internal mission list updated.

Rescue Doctor Swabs: Objective failed.

Rescue Doctor Strongheart: Objective failed.

The words of Clean Cut, and eventually those of the filly impressed upon the ACHE what still needed to be taken care of though. The filly's in particular were a reminder of how much guidance the children needed.

""You can call us Seva. The colony is under attack, it is not safe to remain on the planet,"" Seva explained in a practically understated tone, ""That is why everyone must go to the star port.""

Seva resumed herding the children along, continually monitoring them. They were not going to lose any more ponies if they could help it.

As Borealis stops for a moment to catch his breath, he also uses the time to do a quick analysis of the crystals - maybe he can discover something about the growth patterns or mechanisms behind the crystal.
Arcana: 14+10+1=25

Faege wrote:As Borealis stops for a moment to catch his breath, he also uses the time to do a quick analysis of the crystals - maybe he can discover something about the growth patterns or mechanisms behind the crystal.
Arcana: 14+10=24

There's something very odd about the crystal - and not only because of the powerful magical auras emitted by the relic and the obsidian crystals. The relic is emitting a resonance that... captures? Absorbs? The aura of the obsidian crystals, weakening its structure and eventually, probably able to cause the crystal to crumble with enough contact.

With the rapid pace of development going on, Emblem doesn't even think to protest against being carried by the minotaur, despite how it may've looked. That was actually a good solution and he appreciated the quick thinking on the bipedal's behalf. He concentrated on guiding him as well as he could... until they've reached the sight of the starship. Cringing at the sight of the crowds, the unicorn knew exactly why he requested picking him up... his eyes widened as he received the hasty message over the radio. With such an insubordination, the crew had better hope they don't meet him anytime soon... Sill, Emblem needem that ship - and it carried his cargo. At least survival of those had a higher chance now... hopefully. Due to the situation he's found himself in, he tried to remember whether this city's starportwasn't supposed to have any non-public entrances that they could use to enter without having to go through the crowds.. and where to find such.

Streetwise check: 18 + d20 (4) = 22

Terrestial wrote:With the rapid pace of development going on, Emblem doesn't even think to protest against being carried by the minotaur, despite how it may've looked. That was actually a good solution and he appreciated the quick thinking on the bipedal's behalf. He concentrated on guiding him as well as he could... until they've reached the sight of the starship. Cringing at the sight of the crowds, the unicorn knew exactly why he requested picking him up... his eyes widened as he received the hasty message over the radio. With such an insubordination, the crew had better hope they don't meet him anytime soon... Sill, Emblem needem that ship - and it carried his cargo. At least survival of those had a higher chance now... hopefully. Due to the situation he's found himself in, he tried to remember whether this city's starportwasn't supposed to have any non-public entrances that they could use to enter without having to go through the crowds.. and where to find such.

Streetwise check: 18 + d20 (4) = 22

There are numerous staff entrances, as well as an underground passage from a (presumably) locked entrance leading into the utility closet of the star port, which would then lead directly to the docking bays. Emblem knows the approximate location of the entrance, and it'll probably not be known by anyone other than managerial staff of the port.

Seva
The little filly nods quietly, and rejoins the crowd, where a bigger colt who seems to be her brother gives her a quick hug before they set off again.

As the group nears the port, Clean Cut grows distraught as he sees the large crowd surrounding the port. "Princess damn whatever is causing this... hell. We're never going to get the children onto the ship at this rate." He bites his lips, looking at Seva. "Do you know how to pilot a ship? ...as an ACHE, can you... uh, interface with a ship... or something? I think there's an emergency hospital ship - only for transport, not nearly big enough to be a full evacuation ship for the general populace - that maybe, we can use to ferry at least the children out of this hellhole. It should have the juice to make a single FTL jump - it'll have to be good enough."

---

Copperette
The flames ease a little, but Copperette isn't out of danger quite yet - the wall of fire seems to have thinned out but the smoke still obscures the path to safety. Copperette hears, through the roaring of flame, Gristle's voice: "Can you hear me? Try follow my voice! We can loop back and find another way past the fire!"

OOC: Perception to follow voice, endurance to not die

Checks:

Copperette's head turned slowly towards the sound of a voice. The smog was choking at her, fire was all around, and she felt rather weak...

And then, all of a sudden, she felt a surge of stubbornness. She wasn't going to die - she couldn't. She was in the future, and she was not going to let something as simple as a fire keep her from seeing it. She looked around again at the flames and the heat, and decides.

"... Enough."

She focused her magic, drawing her energy into her horn. The spell she was about to try was difficult - in fact, she never got it right, ordinarily. This time would be different. It had to work. It would work.

A sort of blue bubble emerged at the tip of her horn, and began to expand. Soon enough it had enveloped her, forming a protective shield. She struggled to pour more energy into it, expanding it and pushing back the flames. The flames died down under the forcefield, the heat receded, and Copperette slowly began walking towards the expanding wall, following it to the edge of the flames.

Soon enough, she was standing in front of Granny Gristle, a thin energetic wall between them. A small hole opened in the base, and Copperette stepped out, eyes burning with determination.

"Let's get out of here," she said.

Seeing it unnecessary to comment that they wouldn't be able to pass through here without hurting bystanders, Emblem points at what be believed was the way to the underground passage. Seeing what the minotaur was able to pull out recently, he had little doubts that he'd take care of forcing the way through the locked gates. The starport was civilian-, not military-grade after all. Hopefully, he'd be able to pinpoint their loction well enough to be on time... getting trapped in a crystal field amidst this mayhem wasn't high on his priority list. Allowing himself to be still carried for increased efficiency, he said quickly to his companion, in the heat of the moment:

"Better path, this way!"

There was a deliberate blink as Seva waited for a moment to process what they could of the situation to provide a succinct answer. Seva had performed maintenance on ship systems before, so there was a baseline amount of understand. They had also piloted small craft before, mostly the Panacea's shuttlecraft, but usually after becoming familiar with them first. The unknowns of this situation were also very different – this was clearly a scale of conflict more severe than some random pirates.

""Insufficient data. Unable determine accurate chances of piloting the ship on a successful escape vector without specific knowledge of ship model and configuration.""

However, if they could directly interface with the ship, which was likely possible, and analyze the systems... Seva glanced at the children for a brief second. Maybe they could have a chance. They ought to at least have one. Seva re-established direct eye contact with Clean Cut.

""We are qualified and experienced in the handling of some small craft. We can adapt, and try.""

"Got it."

Borealis follows the unicorn's directions, running away from the advancing crystals. As he makes his way across the street, he glances to the unicorn, wondering how to put his magical analysis into words, but eventually deciding that it could wait - getting out safely is priority. The unicorn seems to know what he's talking about, and frankly he looks like he has a better plan in mind than Borealis - he can follow his directives for a while longer.

Seva
Clean Cut nods, and turns to the adult patients - the ones who were well enough to walk, anyway - only to find them shooing him away. "We're old and sick, we'll just slow you down. Take care of the kids, maybe you can loop back and pick us up later."

Clean Cut looks divided for a moment, but nods, "We'll come back for you."

He leads the group of a dozen odd children away, picking up the pace, leaving the group of adults behind. Eventually the group comes across what looks like a set of rolling shutter gates, locked tight by a padlock - a rarity in the modern age. "Damn... it's locked."

---

Borealis Emblem
Borealis rounds a corner, but instead of seeing an abandoned street, the unlikely duo comes face to face with an ACHE, a unicorn, and a group of terrified looking children. With Borealis' legwork, the crystals are still a few minutes away - seems the signal emitted by the relic weakens over a distance, making it harder to track by the obsidian crystals - so the group *should* be safe.

The unicorn turns around, looking at the pair. "You- you're PMC, right?" He points to the minotaur. "Can you open this up? We have civilians on the ground, and a small ship we can use to pick them up and jump to safety. Help us get to the ship and we'll guarantee you passage off world."

---

Belgond Copperette
Belgond and Golden Gears flash-teleport onto the streets, and Belgond regains his bearings just in time to see Copperette walk through a veritable wall of fire, her horn glowing as a wave of solid magic parts the sea of flame and extinguishes the blaze.

Gristle watches, slack jawed, as Copperette trots up to her. Once she recovers, she actually grabs Copperette into a quick hug before putting her back down on the ground. "Little pup, I thought ya were toast! That was incredible!"

"Griselda! You're safe!" Golden Gears calls out, galloping up to the pair. "And Copperette... thank the Princess... are you alright? I saw the fire - and you just put it out like that, I'd never seen anything like it!"

OOC: Slight color change for Gears to avoid confusion with Seva in the future. Copperette also takes 5 smoke-inhalation and burn damage that must be reversed with either an extended rest or be healed in combat.

---

Degree
As the griffon disappears into the smoke, Degree resumes his flight, finally breaking out of the flaming section of the city and flying into clear, open air. As he circles over to the port, which appears to be overflowing with desperate refugees, he notices a few things:First, his ship is missing. The bay it occupied is empty. Second, he notices a giant field of black crystal, slowly worming its way from the center of the city towards the port - slowly, but inevitably, as it consumes buildings and street vehicles to create ever larger crystal structures.

Borealis, first respectfully putting Emblem back onto the ground, raises an eyebrow and says, "Your friend there is an ACHE; can't he just... I don't know, shift a key or something?"

Nonetheless, he moves to break the lock off of the shuttered gate. "You'll have to be careful, there's some kind of abnormal crystal field going around that's absorbing matter into its own structure - even living creatures. Getting off the planet's surface should be good enough, but with that thing in the sky..."

He looks at the kids, frowning. "We'll have to move fast - I can carry the kids, they're probably tired already - we have to go before things get any worse."

Rolls:

To say that Belgond was surprised to see the young mare from the past step out of a wall of fire while using what appears to be a magical shield of some sort of contain and snuff out the flames around her was a bit of an understatement. Still, as Golden and Gristle caught up and made sure that Copperette was alright Belgond took a moment to look around to see if there was anything threatening in the nearby area that they should be aware of.

Dice Rolls:

Degree scowls and lands near where his ship was, looking around the area to find a clue, any clue, as to who stole the ship. And if possible, where they went, so Degree could rip them a new one for touching his precious.

Perception: 11+10=21

Copperette started to speak - and then decided to start hacking and coughing instead. "I'm okay," she worked out after a minute. "I think. Can we go now?"

Seva did not vocalize it, but they did find an agreement in the thought of leaving the sick adults behind. While it would be preferable to not leave them behind, in practice there was legitimate concern about not only being lagged behind, but in the need to provide healthcare while they were on the move. The children certainly needed to be minded, but that was at least only a portion of a total possible load. Seva was also unsure why, but their internal sense of mission parameters were leaning towards the children as a primary objective over the adults – if only slightly. As they followed Clean Cut and the children, a diagnostic was quickly made on the more biological, changeling-based systems to make sure they were not effecting Seva's judgement too severely. Systems seemed to be running within acceptable parameters though – at least they seemed to be, given the situation.

Seva eyed the lock for a moment, running simulations on how to potentially rearrange one of their limbs into a lock-picking limb when the minotaur showed up. The mention of the crystals introduced another unknown that Seva started to take into account. Absorbing matter and creatures... Seva made a note that the adults they left behind perhaps had significantly lower survival rates than anticipated. Then again, this seemed to be keeping in line with how the situation had been progressing. The stakes were continuing rise, and those who were left behind, or tried to help those who fell behind...

The minotaur though, could be an advantage, the ACHE thought. A military mind would add a new perspective and skill set that could be useful for this escape. Sure enough, Seva silently observed as the minotaur set to work with a method they had not anticipated.

OOC: Since everyone has gotten to the approximate area of the port, here's a simple description:
The star port is an elevated area, about 100 ft above the regular city level, accessible through the main port building, where the bulk of the crowding seems to be occurring. The port itself is a large crescent shaped landing, with a few bays for larger ships (such as the 4 evacuation ships being steadily filled up) and numerous docks, most of them empty, for smaller civilian ships. Each dock is a ship-sized depression in the port surface that are covered in mag-lift modules that keep docked ships afloat so they can take off without having to go through all that landing gear nonsense.

Visual Reference:

---

Belgond Copperette
Gristle smiles and ruffles Copperette's mane, looking to Golden Gears for an answer. The mare glances at Belgond, and nods, "Yeah, we should probably get going. The port shouldn't be far now..."

Belgond's sharp eye notes that a couple of fliers seem to have bypassed the crowd by taking to the skies and flying into the port to hijack ships - one of them being a blackish purple griffon, and a soon after that a black drake. There seem to be no immediate dangers on the streets, except for a few dying embers from the fire. Well, there's also the small group of thug looking ponies - mostly pegasi - marching down the street in their direction, though probably not at them specifically.

---

Degree
Degree can't really trace the ship - since once a ship gets into hyperdrive, it requires dedicated equipment to track - but he does notice the telltale signs of hoofprints around where the boarding entrance of the ship would be. Whoever stole his ship, it's a pony. He does notice a few alternatives to his ship, however - the four large evacuation ships are there, alongside a number of civilian ships: There's a corvette that's actually decently armed, with the decorations of the Adjutant Corps; there's what looks like a trading ship, already over-capacity but still trying to take off; and few others also loading up on ponies to evacuate. In fact most of the ship seem to be loading up to leave, save one - a ship with hospital markings, with the letterings HMS Onset Dawn on the side.

Happy to see that the group had gotten together and was prepared to carry on with trying to secure themselves a position on one of the ships, Belgond nodded as he glanced back at the group and prepared to get moving again. The group of thug looking ponies that seemed to be heading in their direction caught his eye a little and he softly asked "Gristle, do you know who they are and if we are about to get into trouble?"

It was a simple question to be sure, but if there was ever a time for scavengers to descend and try and take advantage of a situation it would be now; They didn't need to be jumped by some misguided idiots while the planet was burning after all. Belgond was happy to give them a wide berth and keep an eye on them while they made their way towards the dock encase they decided to do something very shortsighted... and if Belgond had anything to say about it, their shortsightedness would be short lived.

Dice Rolls:

Degree raises a brow at the unoccupied ship. Figures - his ship gets stolen, but the hospital ship remains untouched. Especially when his ship is a barebones corvette while the hospital ship probably has more extensive supplies and systems. "...Might as well check it out."

If there were medics trying to organize an evacuation, perhaps they needed the service of a capable pilot. And if there weren't... well, no harm in taking a little peek. Degree shrugs and sets off for the Onset Dawn.