14th February 2013
15:40 GMT -5
Eiling frowns as he crushes the guns that Mahkent and I aren't using. "But if you're jamming the teleporter, what's stopping them beaming these guys out the moment you leave?"
"Nothing. I could destroy the beacons in their armour, which should stop them beaming out.
"
Kadabra prods the armour our prisoner exited at our request. "That should not be necessary. I believe…" He waves his wand, then taps the armour twice. There's a faint 'hiss' as something overloads, which is echoed a moment later by every other suit of armour in the room. Kadabra stands up, looking pleased with himself. "A little feedback, because all of the beacons work on the same-."
"Talk yourself up
after the mission." But Eiling does look slightly mollified as he prods our prisoner. "Lead the way."
He complies as I
scan the ship's interior… I actually get a little more from the inside than I got from the outside. Either the shield is only designed to stop scans from the exterior or it isn't designed to stop yellow rings. Weaponer design, maybe? They wouldn't want to block rings they might use, but I don't plan on picking up an antithesis ring to check. No space that I can detect
shouts 'holding cells', but at least I know where the bridge, drive and main generator are now.
Mr. Mahkent edges closer to me as we enter an adjoining corridor, holding his gun slightly awkwardly. "These are just 'point and shoot', right?"
"They're plasma-based, so there's far less recoil than with a projectile rifle. Though more than with a laser. The pulses will act up around strong magnetic fields, but otherwise, yes. Ah, no offence meant, but… You haven't used a gun before?
"
He looks… Awkward, then… Kind of sad. "Dad always said… He wanted me to use my powers. Said I shouldn't need a gun."
"Huh. Well, it's.. good that you've focused on your powers, otherwise you'd probably have killed someone by now. But you should try and get some time in at a shooting range.
"
"I didn't think the Justice League liked guns?"
"Most members don't, but they're not hypocritical enough to complain about it when Superman has a super laser in each eye. I started shooting with a pistol a few days after I got my ring, and it's saved my life.
"
Eiling snorts. "No one taught you to use a gun? That's un-American. I taught
Randy to-."
He stops for a moment, his shoulders tensing. The Dhorian
stops as well, looking back at the hulking man as if he expects Eiling to kill him. But Eiling
isn't the sort to let his current relationship with his stepchildren
interfere with the mission.
Unfortunately, Mr. Mahkent isn't as sensitive to the mood as I am.
"Randy? That your kid?"
Eiling doesn't immediately answer, instead pointing down the corridor and giving our prisoner a small shove. He
gets the message at once.
"I'll say this once, Icicle.
DO NOT ask me about my family."
"You're the one-." I shake my head, which he spots. "Ah, sure dude. Whatever."
Kadabra looks thoughtful. "Do you expect to capture this ship, or is that merely the ideal situation?"
"We sort of
need to. Unless they've got a
very peculiar build, each of the larger ships can perform planetary bombardments. Along with their ship-to-surface teleporters, that's an immediate strategic threat that we need to deal with.
"
"I could try to access their computer system."
"Unless they've changed their designs a lot, Dhorian ships don't use central computers precisely to stop people taking control of their ships like that.
"
Eiling nods. "Smart. Lantern, ask this guy where all the soldiers are."
"Trooper, where is everyone?
"
"
P-protocol in case of boarding is for everyone to hunker in place until marines can counterattack. But they won't bother trying to secure empty corridors."
"They've taken cover until their marines remove us.
"
"He know where?"
"Where will the attack come?
"
"I don't know. We've done drills for attacks from anywhere."
Eiling's jaw hardens. "That didn't sound like a location."
"Apparently there isn't any one 'intercept here' point. They've trained to do it anywhere.
My guess would be prisoner containment.
"
"Going in or coming out?"
"Depends on the state of the prisoners. They won't want us to get reinforcements, but if the prisoners are in bad condition it would be easier to let us get in first. The
real problem would be if they did the smart thing.
"
"Surrender?"
"Abandon this ship and have the other ships bombard it.
"
The guide
shakes, though he manages to keep his footing.
Eilings nods. "That would do it. Think they will?"
"Not until at least one dedicated effort to stop us fails. They
might not do it even if we free them. Depends what it looks like we're doing.
"
"How fast could they kill this ship?"
"Don't know. Ask me again if we reach their gunnery or bridge. I doubt that they can remotely deactivate this ship's shield, but we can't manoeuvre or fire back without complete control of the ship.
"
"Do they use fighter ships? Or bombers?"
"Not usually. They've probably got a few shuttles, but laser point defences and force fields generally make attack craft a waste of resources.
"
"Navy rather than air force, huh?"
"Basically. There
are exceptions; some forms of technology that don't scale up well, that sort of thing. Thanagarians use Nth metal attack craft because they're far tougher, faster and more agile than anything else in the region. But that's about it.
"
Our guide stops in front of a heavy bulkhead door. He tries to open it with his security authorisation, but naturally it's been cancelled.
Kadabra steps forward to take care of it-.
"What's through here?
"
"Cargo lift two. It can take you down to the cells."
"Kadabra, please have the lift rise to the top of the ship and then lock it in place.
"
"That should be possible." I hear a quiet rumble as the lift leaves. "And then the door opens…"
The door opens, revealing the lift shaft. I step up to the opening, carefully looking up and down. No soldiers sticking their guns out through the other openings in the shaft, none attached to the side of the shaft and no one obvious at the bottom.
"Looks clear.
"
I extend-. I extend-.
"Ah, sorry, normally I'd fly everyone down but I'm having trouble with using this ring…
"
Eiling wraps his right arm around our guide and his left around Kadabra and jumps down, bending his legs lightly when he hits the bottom about fifty metres down. Mahkent points his right hand at the side of the shaft and fires a steam of ice, creating a pathway around the edge. I just
step off and float down, landing at the bottom-
BOOM!
-just as the lift at the top of the shaft explodes!
