Mr Zoat
Dedicated ragequitter
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12th August 2013
22:41 GMT
"Purple hair and tattoos?"
Kon nods. "If she looks like the others, yeah."
That's her. In the comics she was an alien living in Kandor, who mentally altered Superman to think he was her husband. Now that I think about it, that doesn't make any sense. There weren't any aliens in Kandor; Krypton had been isolationist for over a century before it exploded, and it's not like Krypton had any need for an alien underclass to do manual labour for them.
And wasn't Kandor part of that Mosaic thing anyway..? Author's note: No. Despite having a guy in the comics who canonically collected cities, they chose to make a character who when last seen was a pleasant old man retiring from active service go mad and abduct cities for no reason instead. Yes, I'm bitter.
"And this whole thing was a dominator plot to steal kryptonian technology?"
Kon shrugs. "That's my best guess. You said they had a space gate on Timaron?"
"Under the surface, yes."
"Were they trying to get kryptonian technology from there, too?"
"I don't know. It's possible that they just put a portal there so that they had one in the general vicinity. I don't even know if they put it there before or after Timaron was ravaged."
Arisia frowns. "Wouldn't someone have noticed?"
"The dominators have a bit of a habit of sneaking research stations into places no one was expecting them. The only difference between that and a gateway is that building a gateway would take longer. They've had forty years since Dru-Zod wrecked the place, but they've had over a century since Krypton abandoned it."
"Okay." She nods. "So the reason why everyone got turned stupid is that Lyla… Wanted to make sure that none of us talked to Zod and Ursa about her? Or-. About Non, because they knew him well enough to notice that he wasn't acting right? And that's why she knocked them out and didn't speak to them again?"
"That's my best guess. Plus, it increased how much we trusted 'Non-Du'. Nothing went missing, but she could have learned all sorts of things by observation."
Kon nods. "So what now?"
"We go back to Xudar, beat Lyla unconscious and then have the genomorphs trawl her brain to find out exactly what she did, and then if relevant put her on trial under the appropriate legal code."
"And Zod and Ursa?"
"Nothing's changed, except that Lyla might be responsible for the things they've been accused of. I'm carrying kryptonite and their environmental shields aren't configured to block kryptonite radiation."
"What if they're on the ships?"
"Then that's up to Jordan and Kal-El. More Jordan, really. I'm happy to pry them open but that might cause a bigger confrontation with the Dominion."
"Bigger than that thing with the guys working on Great Mother?"
"Those were -relatively speaking- nobodies. If their gamble doesn't pay off no one was going to do anything. Whoever did this has a slightly bigger circle on their forehead."
Arisia narrows her eyes. "Didn't you attack a dominator prison?"
"Yes, but I didn't keep hold of the high caste dominators who ran it. The Dominion is far too low on my list of priorities to start a fight right now." Hm. "Unless no one minds if I destroy their core worlds and butcher the entire population. I might be able to do that-."
"No." She shakes her head. "No don't do that."
I nod agreeably. "So the best case scenario is that we take all the dominators here prisoner and trade them back to the Dominion after learning what they were doing. So." I gesture in the direction of Xudar. "Shall we?"
They nod, and I extend my own environmental shield around them because with all due respect to Lantern Arisia I'm a lot stronger than she is. Space bends and my rings' power reserves tick downwards as I brute force us through the Dominion interdiction field towards Xudar.
Scanning…
"We're coming out behind their fleet. Not sure what they're doing or what's happening on Xudar itself. Two, one, now."
Spacetime wobbles, and we're back to following its rules.
And there are the ships, four military cruisers and a cluster of attack craft, backed up by a smattering of thralls.
"Green Lantern to Orange Lantern."
The cruisers aren't bothering to do anything so gauche as use a gravity well slingshot. Instead, they're just using their own gravity drives to twist around as they pull away from Xudar, the rest of the fleet following as best it can. They aren't actually trying to get their subordinates killed; they just literally don't care whether they live or die.
"I'm here with Kon and Arisia. Situation?"
"Ursa and Lyla are free, and Lyla got kryptonian powers. Any idea where they're going?"
"There's a spatial gate near Timaron. They were hiding it under the planet's surface. Mother of Mercy's in pursuit of their command ship, but with interdiction fields in action she's… A planet. They're not exactly fast or agile."
He nods curtly. "Lyla and Ursa are onboard one of those ships. I don't know which one."
I look at them. I don't know what Lyla looks like, but Ursa…
I add her location to the tactical plot. "Orders?"
"What do you think?"
"We don't really need either of them, tidy as it would be. But we can't let the Dominion do whatever it likes. I could easily wreck a few of those ships without killing too much of the crew. Alternately…" Hm. "Could you make a zeta tube construct?"
"No."
"Can Ghia'ta?"
"Ah… She says 'yeah'."
"Neat. Whoever's in charge will be on the command ship near Timaron, but the shipmasters will be experienced and capable. It would help if I had a distraction."
"Karsta wants to attack, Supes told her 'no'. I know how you feel but he doesn't think this is worth killing anyone over."
I suppose the Doomsday probably wasn't designed to be discriminating.
"Have her pursue on an attack heading, just to make them think she's going to shoot. Move after the alien ships yourself. You can disable them without killing anyone, right?" He nods. "Kon and Arisia can hold their attention here without getting in too much danger."
"What about you?"
"I'm going to board them, of course."
22:41 GMT
"Purple hair and tattoos?"
Kon nods. "If she looks like the others, yeah."
That's her. In the comics she was an alien living in Kandor, who mentally altered Superman to think he was her husband. Now that I think about it, that doesn't make any sense. There weren't any aliens in Kandor; Krypton had been isolationist for over a century before it exploded, and it's not like Krypton had any need for an alien underclass to do manual labour for them.
And wasn't Kandor part of that Mosaic thing anyway..? Author's note: No. Despite having a guy in the comics who canonically collected cities, they chose to make a character who when last seen was a pleasant old man retiring from active service go mad and abduct cities for no reason instead. Yes, I'm bitter.
"And this whole thing was a dominator plot to steal kryptonian technology?"
Kon shrugs. "That's my best guess. You said they had a space gate on Timaron?"
"Under the surface, yes."
"Were they trying to get kryptonian technology from there, too?"
"I don't know. It's possible that they just put a portal there so that they had one in the general vicinity. I don't even know if they put it there before or after Timaron was ravaged."
Arisia frowns. "Wouldn't someone have noticed?"
"The dominators have a bit of a habit of sneaking research stations into places no one was expecting them. The only difference between that and a gateway is that building a gateway would take longer. They've had forty years since Dru-Zod wrecked the place, but they've had over a century since Krypton abandoned it."
"Okay." She nods. "So the reason why everyone got turned stupid is that Lyla… Wanted to make sure that none of us talked to Zod and Ursa about her? Or-. About Non, because they knew him well enough to notice that he wasn't acting right? And that's why she knocked them out and didn't speak to them again?"
"That's my best guess. Plus, it increased how much we trusted 'Non-Du'. Nothing went missing, but she could have learned all sorts of things by observation."
Kon nods. "So what now?"
"We go back to Xudar, beat Lyla unconscious and then have the genomorphs trawl her brain to find out exactly what she did, and then if relevant put her on trial under the appropriate legal code."
"And Zod and Ursa?"
"Nothing's changed, except that Lyla might be responsible for the things they've been accused of. I'm carrying kryptonite and their environmental shields aren't configured to block kryptonite radiation."
"What if they're on the ships?"
"Then that's up to Jordan and Kal-El. More Jordan, really. I'm happy to pry them open but that might cause a bigger confrontation with the Dominion."
"Bigger than that thing with the guys working on Great Mother?"
"Those were -relatively speaking- nobodies. If their gamble doesn't pay off no one was going to do anything. Whoever did this has a slightly bigger circle on their forehead."
Arisia narrows her eyes. "Didn't you attack a dominator prison?"
"Yes, but I didn't keep hold of the high caste dominators who ran it. The Dominion is far too low on my list of priorities to start a fight right now." Hm. "Unless no one minds if I destroy their core worlds and butcher the entire population. I might be able to do that-."
"No." She shakes her head. "No don't do that."
I nod agreeably. "So the best case scenario is that we take all the dominators here prisoner and trade them back to the Dominion after learning what they were doing. So." I gesture in the direction of Xudar. "Shall we?"
They nod, and I extend my own environmental shield around them because with all due respect to Lantern Arisia I'm a lot stronger than she is. Space bends and my rings' power reserves tick downwards as I brute force us through the Dominion interdiction field towards Xudar.
Scanning…
"We're coming out behind their fleet. Not sure what they're doing or what's happening on Xudar itself. Two, one, now."
Spacetime wobbles, and we're back to following its rules.
And there are the ships, four military cruisers and a cluster of attack craft, backed up by a smattering of thralls.
"Green Lantern to Orange Lantern."
The cruisers aren't bothering to do anything so gauche as use a gravity well slingshot. Instead, they're just using their own gravity drives to twist around as they pull away from Xudar, the rest of the fleet following as best it can. They aren't actually trying to get their subordinates killed; they just literally don't care whether they live or die.
"I'm here with Kon and Arisia. Situation?"
"Ursa and Lyla are free, and Lyla got kryptonian powers. Any idea where they're going?"
"There's a spatial gate near Timaron. They were hiding it under the planet's surface. Mother of Mercy's in pursuit of their command ship, but with interdiction fields in action she's… A planet. They're not exactly fast or agile."
He nods curtly. "Lyla and Ursa are onboard one of those ships. I don't know which one."
I look at them. I don't know what Lyla looks like, but Ursa…
I add her location to the tactical plot. "Orders?"
"What do you think?"
"We don't really need either of them, tidy as it would be. But we can't let the Dominion do whatever it likes. I could easily wreck a few of those ships without killing too much of the crew. Alternately…" Hm. "Could you make a zeta tube construct?"
"No."
"Can Ghia'ta?"
"Ah… She says 'yeah'."
"Neat. Whoever's in charge will be on the command ship near Timaron, but the shipmasters will be experienced and capable. It would help if I had a distraction."
"Karsta wants to attack, Supes told her 'no'. I know how you feel but he doesn't think this is worth killing anyone over."
I suppose the Doomsday probably wasn't designed to be discriminating.
"Have her pursue on an attack heading, just to make them think she's going to shoot. Move after the alien ships yourself. You can disable them without killing anyone, right?" He nods. "Kon and Arisia can hold their attention here without getting in too much danger."
"What about you?"
"I'm going to board them, of course."
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