IN BRIGHTEST DAY - Mod Plot [LOG POST | 2 | IN BLACKEST NIGHT]

[wieldtherainbow]

Who| Everyone involved in the plot
What| A space battle
Where| In the space sector around Cargg
When| If relevant, like if you want to note it's after an event.
Warnings/Notes| Things may get violent/gory!

Unfortunately, even the last Green Lanterns didn't know where the yellows or reds had hidden their central power batteries. Their long lost bases were still lost to the universe. That meant the only way to find them was to wait for them to attack.

In the space sector around the planet Cargg, reports of an asteroid mining freighter getting attacked clued the Legion and their allies into where the yellows were. By the time they got there, the red Lanterns had also joined in -- attacking all comers, including the yellows themselves. As the different groups of Lanterns collided in combat, the deaths started almost instantly. New rings started seeking owners, including those of the reds and yellows.

By now, they'd all received at least enough basic training with their rings to function in battle, and they all still had use of their normal powers.

A squad of Green Lanterns led by Kilowog gathered around the freighter, trying to shield it from attack.

"Listen up, poozers!" Kilowog called out to his greens, leading them into the fight and setting up a perimeter. "We need to give this ship time to evac. Hold the line! If it's yellow or red, it's not getting through!"

Kid Quantum, wielding a blue ring, called out to the Legionnaires, "We need to protect that freighter! Everyone move in to support the greens. Hit and run tactics! Hit 'em fast and hit 'em hard. Let's go, Legion!"

Comments

[kingtyrantranger]

Looks like they were both dinged up. Jason ground his teeth together. Taking damage like this was unheard of back home. They might get some dings and bruises, but they were never bleeding at the end of things. Whether that was a mark of how well his team functioned or how much higher the stakes were here, he didn't want to think about.

He was already berating himself for screwing up enough that a teammate got hurt helping him out. Alexander was older and more experienced, but Jason couldn't break the habit of thinking of his team as his responsibility. But how could they handle a situation like this?

When Jason was younger, they did an experiment in class involving plastic filters and markers. It was an odd thing to think of now, but there you had it. The colored ink reflected light of a certain color and absorbed all others, allowing the ink to appear as that color. But the plastic filters that they wore blocked that color coming in because it absorbed the color. Ring, can you match his construct's color so that he can't see my attacks?

[Affirmative.]

That was all he needed to know. Ordering the ring to do it, he sent out large spray of power beams in the direction where the last shots had fired. To him, they practically filled his vision. To Alexander, the only sign would be holes being punched in the floating wreckage in front of them, sending smaller pieces spiraling off into space.

And a streak of yellow as the sniper took advantage of the idiot rookie's seeming mistake of blinding the pair of them to his movements with a lightshow to move to another spot of cover, already setting up to take another shot.

[got_gud]

[Warning: Internal hemorrhaging reaching dangerous levels. Seek medical assistance immediately.]

Alexander pushed the pain of his wound aside, focusing on maintaining his aim.

"Just keep me going long enough for one shot, that's all I need."

Jason's sudden ploy took him by surprise, but he grinned as soon as he saw the streak of yellow go by in the distance. This was what he needed.

With a triumphant shout, Alexander willed his construct to loose the javelin-sized arrow towards where the streak was headed. He focused everything he had on propelling the greatarrow forward, with far more speed and force than the real thing could ever have. He didn't have the real Hawkeye Gough's aim, so he was damn sure he wasn't going to let this opportunity slip by.

Even though his ring wasn't set for lethal force, the arrow would still be enough to cause serious damage to its target.

[kingtyrantranger]

The fantastic thing about power ring constructs is that there's no need for them to pick up speed. You can have something the size of bus going at lightspeed as soon as it's willed into being.

It was not even a question of whether or not the sniper would make it in time. It was more 'will Alexander's shot be true?'

Jason watched, using a pair of construct binoculars. It was practically flawless. Kim probably couldn't have made the shot like that, and her bow was magic. "Yeah!" The Sinestro Corps sniper didn't have time to raise a barrier, the arrow split his rifle in half and kept going, taking him full in the shoulder. Judging by how it carried him on, Jason didn't think that he was conscious. He'd probably be traveling until someone picked him up.

When he turned to celebrate, however, he got a good look at Alexander. A better one than before. And his fellow Legionnaire did not look good. "Hey, man. Are you okay?" He holds out his hands, unsure of what to do about this. That is an alarming amount of red on his armor.

[got_gud]

Alexander chuckled wearily, ignoring the metallic taste in his mouth.

"Don't worry too much about me, lad," he replied, putting a hand over his wound. "The one good thing about being Undead is that even if I die from my wounds, I'll just get back up eventually. Our time would be better spent making sure no one else gets so badly hurt."

Still, he berated himself for taking such needless damage. Back home, he could die as many times as he wished, so long as he kept scrounging for Humanity. But here, with only the handful of Humanity he had left, each death was a precious resource, not something to be squandered meaninglessly.

[kingtyrantranger]

"I'm going to worry about you until you get to a doctor," he snapped, then paused and shook his head. "Sorry. I shouldn't have snapped like that. But if those freaks smell blood in the water, they're going to be after you and hard."

He'd already failed a teammate once. Even if Alexander's going to get back up, Jason was going to do everything he could to convince him from getting hurt worse than he already was.

He reached out to clasp the older man's shoulder. "There's probably going to be something after this. And we don't know when it'll be. If you're still recovering from the whole 'being dead' thing, that's one less person we've got watching our backs."

[got_gud]

"Alright, alright," he replied wearily, raising his free hand in defeat. "You win. I'll go get help, I promise. But you should go and help the others. Make sure no one else gets this badly hurt, eh?"

He clapped a hand onto Jason's shoulder, and looked him square in the eye.

"You're a good lad. Don't get yourself killed out there."

With that, he took off for the rear line, where medical assistance would be waiting. A few seconds after taking flight, out of earshot of Jason, his ring spoke up again.

[CHANCES OF REACHING MEDICAL ASSISTANCE WITH SUFFICIENT TIME TO STABILIZE WOUNDS AND PREVENT DEATH: FIVE PERCENT. IMMINENT DEATH OF WIELDER LIKELY.]

"I'm aware, friend. Take me somewhere out of the way. I'd rather not take up the medics' precious time saving me when it could be spent saving someone else. Besides, I don't want to make the lad feel any worse than he probably already does."

[...ACKNOWLEDGED.]

With that, he flew off towards a desolate debris field near the rear lines, settling down on a large scrap of debris. He held up his hand, looking at his ring.

"You should probably be off, I suppose. Go and see if you can find someone else to wield you while I'm busy being dead. I'll be able to get back just fine with my Legion flight ring once I recover, so no worries there. Now go on, shoo."

The ring hesitated a moment, stuck in a situation it didn't have normal protocols for.

[...SECTOR SCAN FOR REPLACEMENT INITIATED.]

And in a flash, the ring flew away, leaving Alexander alone, floating weightless in the vacuum of space. Without the ring helping keep his wound compressed, blood flowed freely from it.

Once again, Alexander felt that familiar weariness settle in, closing his eyes for the last time in this particular lifetime, his body floating silently among the stars.