The cast:
- Switchblade (Maestro D'/Wolf of the Maelstrom): acrobatic woman in a fool's motley who leads a traveling show called the Carnival. She is handy with a knife. Switch is currently trying to get free of Bluejay's influence. It cost her most of her "family" and she intends to get revenge.
- Max (Gunlugger): a brutal woman haunted by her past who thinks of herself as a reaver. She has joined the Carnival to be close to her little sister Hiccup.
- Ekaterina "Katya" Mikhailova Petrova (Tribal): for generations Ekaterina's people have lived on Everette, adapting themselves to its strange psychic jungles. But the environment grew too hostile. Katya led her people to a place of safety, following the visions her father saw in the maelstrom. That place is the Carnival.
- Pipeline (Battlebabe): a golden-haired amazon, Pipeline is the head engineer of the Carnival. She had a crush on Manfred but that, like him, is in the past. She's been drinking heavily ever since.
- Hiccup (Solace): Switch's adopted sister and Max's actual if estranged sibling, Hiccup is shy but determined to make the world a better place.
Faling Angels, Part 2
Ping. Ping. Grenades dropped down the disintegrating stairwell.Switch swung up a guard rail suspended over a gap and landed on the stairs above. She cartwheeled up the steps, rolling to the right just before the blast below showered the area with slivers of rebar.
Three more stories, she thought as she ran up another level. Ping.
Switch swung to the left as another grenade hit the steps behind her. The building shook but she was already below Bug's position.
She leaped up, gripping the ledge from below and swung up with practiced grace. Bug's eyes widened as she flipped over the rail and arced overhead. They widened more when her knife cracked through his collar-bone on its way though his shoulder.
I believe she seized by force. The explosions were for dramatic effect. Mostly.
Bug coughed up blood as he rolled onto his back. Around her, his men blasted away with shotguns.
Glowing wings unfurl around her, surrounding her and scattering the deadly pellets.
She's a wolf of the maelstrom.
Switch drove another knife into Bug's throat. Gurgling the old man smiled strangely.
An unpinned grenade fell from his grasp.
I forget if she failed a seize by force or if this was the outcome of another roll.
Hiccup heard the final blast above. Craning her neck she looked up the smoky shaft as Switch tumbled down the stairwell uncontrolled.
She slammed onto a pile of concrete and rebar. Hiccup screamed as her head twisted bonelessly toward her.
"Boss? Bug?" A guard cried into the radio. He turned to his companion. "He's not answering. Let's check on him."
Hiccup sobbed and tried to pull herself free. The handcuffs cut into her skin. She put her weight into it. The pain mounted but she relented before she broke anything, sliding down the wall crying.
Hiccup got a soft her on acting under fire: take harm and get free or stay handcuffed.
"There it is," Pipeline said, pointing to the building.
Max glanced up at the smoke pouring from the left side of the structure. "We're late."
"Where are the guards?' Pipeline asked.
"Let's find out."
The two women entered the beige hallway. Smoke drifted in from the stairwell.
"Hiccup!" Max called as she raced to her sister's side. "Hold still, I'll get you out."
As Max wrenched the pipe from the wall, Pipeline asked, "Are you okay? Where is Switch?"
"I'm, I'm okay. She's." Hiccup pointed. "She died."
Pipeline shielded her eyes and climbed over the rubble.
Her friend and captain lay broken and impaled on rebar in the center the stairwell.
Switch’s eyes opened and her gaze twisted to meet Pipeline's. "Pipeline, take the family to safety."
I think one of our co-MC's decided to mess with Pipeline. I approve.
Pipeline let out a short scream and scrambled back to the others.
Max pulled one end of the pipe out of the wall. Hiccup slipped her handcuffs off the dislodged pipe.
"Max," she said. "We need to release the Carnival from Megaton’s system."
"The controls must be near here." Max headed down the hallway peering in doorways. "Here, there is a terminal."
Hiccup hurried inside and sat down at the keyboard. "Yes. I think I can release the ship's systems. Done. Let's attract some attention."
Throughout Megaton alarm systems began to flash and ring.
"Good," Max said. "I'll get Pipeline."
Pipeline crouched by the stairwell entrance, staring into the smoke where her friend, where that thing, lay.
"Come on," Max said.
Pipeline remained frozen.
"Fuck this." Max grabbed the amazon and tossed her over one shoulder.
"Put me down, already!" Pipeline shouted.
Max dropped her just inside the main doors to the Carnival.
"Where is Switch?" Daily said.
"Switch is dead," Hiccup said, wiping her face. "We need to go now."
Poindexter hurried over. "The ship is prepared. I take it you released the ship's systems?"
Hiccup nodded. "Daily, can you fly us out of here?"
"On my way," he said running to the bridge.
"I need to check on the wounded," Max said. "Pipeline you should get to the engines. We might need more speed."
"I'll go help Daily," Hiccup said.
She found Katya already there. With the station in disarray they easily slipped out of the wreckage that hid Megaton.
"Oh crap," Daily said.
"What are those green points?" Katya said pointing at the screen.
One by one the tiny triangles turned red and grew closer.
Hiccup shivered. "Reavers."
"Pipeline, kill all systems now!" Daily yelled over the intercom.
"What?" she replied.
"Reavers!"
Moments later the lights and computers died. The screen was replaced by the unedited view in front of the ship. Dozens of battle-scarred ships swept past the Carnival as it drifted forward unpowered.
"What is going on?" Max said as she reached the deck.
A large craft, almost half exposed to the void, powered past them. Bodies, some still somehow alive, were bolted to the exterior.
There was a clang. Daily lay on the floor, out cold.
"Okay, I'll take it from here," Max said sitting down at the controls.
Behind them, Megaton, the one of the last great bastions of humanity, fell to the Reaver horde.
Max applied the grounded up fungus to Nestor's wounds. "Where did you find this again?"
"On the hull," Katya said. "The wilderness provides."
"But we are on a ship." Max sighed. "Forget it." She stood up and looked down at Nestor, Chic and Daff. "At least these three look like they'll make it."
"That is good. We have too many dead."
"The Carnival does. You've only lost Grigori." Max dimmed the lights and stepped into the hall.
Katya followed her. "We also mourn the loss of our allies and Switch."
"Switch brought it on herself. Grigori too. He was making trouble."
"We had found a solution in the end."
"Well let's get the funeral started."
The women joined the other survivors. With so many dead, the arrangements took the entire day. One by one the remains were released into the void. At the end, the Baikal took Grigori's body to the engine room.
"He must be burned," Katya explained to Pipeline.
"Burned? Weird. Lets do this safely. I'll rig up an oven."
"So where do we go from here?" Daily said as he leaned back in the captain's chair. "Who is going to be captain? What's our next show?"
Max and Hiccup leaned against the back of the bridge while Katya idly showed her brother the controls.
Pipeline stood up with a bottle in her hand. "What do you mean? The carnival is done."
"We need a destination," Max said.
Daily scratched his head. "Blue Moon isn’t too far. I could arrange some kind of work for us there. Not a full show, not that we can run that now anyway."
Katya closed her eyes for a moment. "There are problems with the mines there."
"What? How do you know that?" Daily asked.
"The void told me."
She opened her brain.
"I don't need anymore of this freaky shit," Pipeline added, unsteadily sitting down and taking another swig.
"Goats, angels and now the void," Daily muttered.
Max shrugged. "Blue Moon it is."
"Pipeline?" Daily asked carefully.
"What?!" She downed a bottle and tossed it into the pile.
"I think you need to stop drinking so much."
"Again with that! I've had to deal with goat worshippers, the death of my friends and family and creepy jungle people. I deserve some alcohol."
"But-"
"Get out."
Daily stepped out of her room and turned to Max.
"So can I try?" she asked.
"Alright," the sad clown replied, his shoulders slumping.
Max stepped into the room and pulled the bottle from Pipeline's hands.
"Hey!"
"You are stopping. You've been sitting here drinking for a week now."
"Who are you to tell me what to do? Switch couldn't and she's dead."
"Exactly. We need our head engineer and who knows we might need the last drops of hay-ale too. You've drunk over half the stock."
"Fuck off."
"No you sober up or I'll toss the rest of this alcohol out the airlock."
Pipeline stood up. "You wouldn't."
"I don't make idle threats."
"I don't believe you."
Max picked up the mostly empty carton and smashed it on the floor.
"Hey!"
Max dropped the bottle in her other hand. "Too bad."
As the beer spread over the floor, Pipeline gritted her teeth. "Fine, I'll just make some more."
Max smiled. "Great to see you doing something then."
"Fucking drama-queen," Pipeline said as she stalked off.
"What are you doing?!" Hiccup exclaimed.
Max looked up from Switch's bed. She dropped a wood carving into a box of posters and knick knacks. "Cleaning up. We need a new captain."
"That doesn't make you captain." Hiccup walked in and pulled the box from her.
Max considered pointing out that no one else was stepping up to the job. She decided not to. "Okay. I'll get out. We can work out who is in charge later. But we need to work it out."
"That's something the crew will decide."
Max put up her hands. "Like I said, we'll discuss it. I'm sorry."
I feel this mistake on Max's part was an important part of her journey toward actually becoming a better person.
"Ilya," Katya said as they sat in the glow of smoldering coil.
"Yes, sister?"
Katya gazed at her brother's smooth face in the red light. "I need to reach our father."
"But he is in the spirit world."
"Yes, I need your help with my spirit journey. Will you help me?"
"Yes. I will prepare myself."
"That's not what I mean. I need someone to lead the tribe while I try to release father's soul. You must lead the tribe while I'm gone."
"But," Ilya objected.
"There is no one else."
Ilya nodded grimly. "I will take care of our people, sister."
Katya stepped into the elder's hut. The oldest and wisest members of the tribe formed a ring around two woven mats. On one lay her father.
"Are you prepared?" an elderly woman asked.
"I am."
Katya lay on the empty mat and let her soul enter the spirit world.
In other words this is a big open your brain.
Unfortunately the details of that scene are lost as they were never written up in the old log. I believe she found her father and learned he was protect the tribe though it wasn't clear from what.
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