[14th November 2010]
[Watchtower, Low Earth Orbit]
"Dude we're in space!" Kid Flash was telling the others excitedly, though it seemed that Robin was less enthusiastic about the sudden decision to relocate the Team, and a few other 'sidekicks' from non-League active heroes like Rocket. Well, 'sidekicks' and their hero mentors themselves such as the muscled form of Icon beside her, either here or in other secure locations across the planet. Honestly, this was one of the more secure ones due to being a decommissioned Green Lantern Corps station and in space too, even if the lack of weapons was a potential problem. For the moment it was only accessible through the selective unlocking of the Zeta-Tube network, or via teleportation through the wards that Giovanni Zatara had put in place, so that was a help.
I wasn't listening to Robin's reply, but the tone at least indicated he'd grasped they were being essentially imprisoned up here for the crisis rather than out there fighting it directly on the streets. For the moment I focused on reading through the document sent unto me from the 'temporary field command centre' in Harrowgate about the fact they suspected a potential outbreak in London from one of the planes that had arrived yesterday from a New York State airport. Till we had some means to scan effectively for it, other than sending Guy Gardner to wave his magic glow ring in the general area, then it meant treating every threat as potential danger till an area was confirm clean.
'Good news is that the creature can't just pump out mind control starfish things overnight and needs energy to propagate itself. Bad news; it gets those it controls memories baring mental barriers and it's had a week or more, with two supervillians under its control, to spread itself as far and wide as it possibly could. Even worse news; it'd be days at least before we got Lanterns here, and a handful of hours into the crisis we were still at the stage of getting the United States Government to declare martial law'
A little depressing really I found I took a sip of the strong hot coffee that Justice League high-tech coffee machine had made for me. Turned out this place was massive, and one of that things in that structure was its own hydroponics bay for...this things like this I guess. Though, seeing the brief map-display, had left an oddly weird feeling having this vast (by Earth terms) super advanced space-station with barely a soul normally on it usually. And it could really do with a staff right now to play logistics and coordination for what needed to a global operation to purge and cleanse this thing from the surface. I glanced again the workstation, shaking my head as it was like something from a sci-fi show with fancy its holo-screens and abilities...
"Dude that's not fair! Whys Skulls here even before us, your super awesome apprentices!" I heard from just behind me, and I got up from the chair after sending off my situation report to SHIELD on what I assumed was a monitored line. I took another sip of the very welcome coffee as I moved over towards the milling group that was the Team, sans Aqualad, as Wally whined to his red-clad mentor. Since they'd just arrived, and been screened by the Thanagarian Hazmat Suit clad Hawk duo, I guess I should take a quick break from computer time and try get everything organised with them.
"Because I'm the official liaison from SHIELD to the Justice League Kid Flash and the world is currently invaded by a mind-controlling starfish that over your body mostly on skin contact. That, and I technically told them rather them getting me first"
If it wasn't so serious a situation I would have laughed at the look that he, and one or two of the others, gave me to that statement as I took another sip of coffee and listened to that "Whaaaa?" in reply to it. At least Flash was happy to confirm that 'No; he hadn't lost my mind or was bullshitting them, and Yes; there really were mind-controlling starfish running about and why we're all up here in space' part of the equation. Less happy were the reactions to the fact they were all stuck up here outside of an event wherein the risk of losing them was worth the risk of deployment.
Which was hopefully not at all in my opinion...actually, in all honesty, the sooner the US military got a nuclear-armed B-52 over Belle Reve in-case of a breach, the happier I'd be. They'd already deployed almost a division's worth of troops to the area as per an escape attempt, but that wasn't really enough to make me confident that mass of danger was contained. China and Russia at least had deployed a similar approach to their meta-human supermax prison complexes within maybe half an hour of the report of various ambassadors on our side to theirs, and the United Nations. I opened my mouth to...
Lights, pulsing unhappy looking crimson lights at that, pulsed into life in a rhythmic motion just as the computer at my workstation decided to inform me, us, of a problem "Warning!!! Large Scale Fusion Reaction Detected On Planet! Coordinates: 2957′N 904′W!!! Warning!!! Electromagnetic Reaction Detected!"
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[14th November 2010]
[Forward Operations Deployment Base Kroka-Toka-Kro, Bialya]
"Secondary Facility on landmass Beta-02 confirmed destroyed Optimal Expeditionary Engineer as per your orders and all personnel are prepared for evacuation" Sub-Prime Engineer Tokneer confirmed to him with a relieved hiss-click, and he gave a respectful and stoic wave of arms and legs to indicate acceptance to the subordinate's information. Almost a whole cycle of the local star's worth of work having sunk into the sands of the miserable ball inhabited by giant ugly primitives...he held the frustration out of his click-hiss reply though, bad for discipline to appear anything other than happy and confident.
"All are accounted for? No infestations detected?"
"Affirmative Response for Clearance Optimal Expeditionary Engineer, all personnel have been double scanned and are prepared for Decontamination Fernangu Protocols upon return to Blessed Krolotea. No infestation of Starro the Star Conqueror will be allowed to enter its sacred soil..." his subordinate replied before giving a dance of questioning "...were you successful in retrieving genetic material for potential combat units from the local fauna Optimal Engineer?"
"Negative Response for high-end Combat Specimens Sub-Prime Engineer, but this one estimates that Specialised Pheromone Specimen G-456Y here..." he answered motioning at the currently struggling form of the specimen. Ensuring that the specimen carried no hidden bacteria or other dangers required forcible decontamination before containment and transport, just like all the last minute captures since the presence of XYU-8 Class Threat was detected on world.
"...is a much more feasible Project to ensure profitability for our venture. While limited, such its failure to impact our species and certain others, Specialised Pheromone Specimen G-456Y's abilities will make it an excellent Negotiation, or even Command, Unit with sufficient taming and training on Blessed Krolotea. Further study of the Specimen should reveal what the cost and time situation would be in regards developing a long-term breeding situation. And while high level Combat Specimens have not been acquired the captured of eighty-six Specimens, forty-seven female, thirty-nine male, during suppression of local fauna should be sufficient for studying low to moderate level Combat Units from a template. So, despite the setback in the wake of this threat, this mission will prove a profitable operation; indeed more than any recent ones by our competitors"
And, from a certain point of view, that was entirely true; the operation was going to be insanely profitable even with the Specimen before them, and the recovered genetic material from the telepathic Specimen they'd been forced to destroy in the evacuation purge. To his subordinates, who had never known of the full intentions of the mission to the Company Board, it would be cause for celebration as they moved from a Forward Combat Deployment to a Research Deployment on the Homeworld or one of the colonies. Oh, and the likely increases in pay from the last minute captures combined with the original stock supplied by Specialised Pheromone Specimen G-456Y. But...
'The Rannian Zeta Tube Operation just took a major blow, perhaps by years even with no Meta-Humanoid Combat Units to be deployed as a distraction. Let alone the loss of said Meta-Humanoid Combat Units genetic material and potential acquisition' he thought gazing silently at the data-slate confirming the last moment updates on the evacuation plan. But the other members of the Company's Board of Engineers had agreed the risk was far too great to attempt anything other than Purge the Wildlife Testing Phase and move to the Clinical Research Phase. The Starro Organism was too dangerous a specimen to study, or even main operations against as the defunct Jleen Genetic Breedstock Company had proven several centuries ago. Or even worse try to hide from the Green Lantern Corps Taskforce that would likely respond to this crisis within less than a dozen solar cycles of this world. Difficult against three...
'But impossible against a large-scale deployment. No use burping over the spilt shemlec' he told himself, touching his comms, and raised his hiss-click to a commanding tone "All Personnel: Seventeen Jindacs to Final Evacuation, hurry it up or you'll be left here in the blast. The Gateway cannot be powered for much longer"
He used to the data-slate to point balefully at the Third Level Xeno-Fauna Veterinarians operating the Xeno-Humanoid Decontamination, Processing, and Tagging Unit "And you six, you told me final processing of the Specimen would Ten Jindacs ago and both you and it are supposed to be through the Gateway. Get it secured and get it, and yourselves, through the Gateway in the next four Jindacs or else you'll be getting field deployment to the Vega Sector!"
--
[14th November 2010]
[Raven Rock Mountain Complex, Blue Ridge, Pennsylvania]
"It's confirmed another detonation, this time in Bialya, and it took out the capital..." General Samuel Lane heard as the accented Russian spoke across the mass teleconference of senior military, political, and meta-human individuals from across the globe "...and there has been a significant EMP effect just as occurred with the detonation in New Orleans an hour ago"
He grimaced as the Russian finished speaking and threw in the obvious conclusion "Since Lantern Gardner began his global information dump to the general public three hours ago we've now had two nuclear detonations, dozens of attacks upon communications infrastructure, and a number of direct assaults upon various facilities. It's very clear that this creature is attempting to both blind and silence us before we can even form a coherent response"
Tens of thousands of American citizens lay dying on his watch in the wake of that first blast, tens of thousands more were injured and dying, and the fight hadn't even started as yet. Rage burned within his heart, rage and fear at the abomination that they faced and their own inadequacy in protecting the nation, the world, as how many countless others lay held in bondage by this starfish shaped abomination?
"Where are they managing to get these weapons from?" his Chinese compatriot, who surprisingly good and unaccented English he noted idly, demanded with a slamming on a fist on a table on the other side of the Earth from Raven Rock. Further up the screen the black masked face of The Batman raised his voice while speaking in that tone like gravel, something that honestly seemed to reflect the mood of all present in the mind of one General Samuel Lane.
"We have no capacity to adequately confirm, but the most likely scenario is the League of Shadows had managed to acquire a weapon in the case of the New Orleans detonation. Since the organisation has been clearly compromised by the Starro creature it is likely that weapons and systems from that Ra's Al Ghul's Shadows have fallen into the creature's possession. Biayla, as the detonation was in the vicinity of the Queen's Royal Guard primary base I would put forward that the creature likely attempted to seize control, and in the conflict either it or the Royal Guard detonated the device"
"Most likely the alien, it was rigged for higher than should be achievable EMP yield; most of the southern states are gone dark outside hardened facilities, and now most of the Middle East is dark as well..." General Lane stated firmly "...and that's going to cripple our response to any outbreaks there. Which is assuming they didn't manage to take out Queen Bee as we believe; at which point Biayla's military would be projected to crumble without her control. I see from the proposal that SHIELD was involved in its forwarding to the United Nations. Have you begun deployments as occurred a week ago Commander?"
The shadowed form, a bit overly dramatic but forgivable for an organisation that had been secret till a few days ago, shook its head in that odd motion blur as the synthesised voice came over the screen "We have secured the ritual sites and begun preparations, but till we have a clearer understanding of the nature of the creature...and a living sample our mages believe to be effective..."
Sam Lane nodded as did most of the other military officers on the screen; while he didn't understand this magic as yet deploying such weapon against an enemy that might shrug it off was a bad idea. Especially as it could expose a potentially dangerous asset to corruption by this alien creature, and it was proving shockingly easy for it to do just that. Elements of the 10th Mountain Division had reported only forty minutes ago that they had found themselves in a gun battle with several squads of the Delaware National Guard who'd had faces sporting blue-red starfish...
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