[Rage at the Eclipse] - The First Phase [Applications now Open again!]

While everybody was inside looting, Jones sat in the car.

He turned on the radio. Tuned around...

Lucy kept a vigilant eye on the surrounding neighbourhood. The house was located in the middle of a long avenue, giving it a wide view of any approaching battlebots, the houses around it seemed to have been vacated but none of them were on fire so that was good. In either Case Chroma had her gun up defensively, ready to provide supporting fire.

Zigrund meanwhile moaned bearily as it rubbed the part of its chest that the lasers had hit. His surprisingly sturdy barkeep outfit took the brunt of the assault, which would make sense for a bartender to wear armour in this part of town.

Wilnarr grabbed his gear, grabbing plenty of survival gear and essentials to keep him alive in whatever situation he found himself in. Chroma, after being called, went in to help him.

Meanwhile Jones fiddled with the radio, most of them were either static or playing the blaring tune of the emergency broadcast channel, giving the canned instructions to find shelter andto await further instructions. There was no particular broadcas-

The radio gave out a loud, warbling high pitched squeel that threatened to burst his eardrums and which seemed to shorten out the radio. Immediately after it the black sun, or rather, whatever was blocking out the sun in the sky seemed to shit, and more black spots could be seen descending from it towards the planet. Whatever happened the emergency broadcast changed and they picked up what seemed to be a military frequency.

"-Starport under assault, ships grounded until the -BZZT- Main Assault int he countryside, the city is -BZZT- Repeat, distraction!"

Jones tried tuning the radio to get it to stop bzzting so damn much. It was annoying!

Lucy looked up at the sky. Well, that was alarming. "Can you hurry it up in there? Something's happening in the sky again." She screeched at the house.

Wilnarr hauled his massive load of survival gear out and threw it into the back of the jeep! "Alright! That should see us through if we need to hide out away from the city. And if we see any interesting wildlife. Let's get out of here before the robots catch us up!"

Chroma gets back into the fucking airjeep.

Lucy kinda wished she'd done some smash and grabbing actually in these other houses. Buuuut, too late, back to the car. "All looks clear on the ground level, sky's getting worse though." She chirped.

Once everybody was aboard, Jones got the fuck out of there.

"WHERE TO?" he yelled as he raced away.

Everybody piled into the airjeep as Jones lifted off.

The spots int he sky got larger alarmingly fast, coronas of fire haloing them as they fell from the sky. Looks like more battlebots for the slaughter. One however peeled off from the group, flying erratically.

“So, we stealing a ship then? This planet isn’t getting any safer and the countryside sounds like it’ll be crawling with bots before long.”

"Damn, the countryside is a non-starter? Maybe we can just slip aboard a ship?" said Wilnarr over the wind whipping past the open-topped flying car. "Oh, how about this! Look for a big one taking off, one they won't be able to just blow out of the sky. If the robots are shooting at it, maybe we can just fly through a hole they make and land the car on board!"

"I like your thinking!" Shotgun said to Wilnarr, looking for a big fat ship that fit that bill!

Lucy scowled. "So I get looking for a big ship that the battlebots can't take out, but we're looking for one with a hole in it, and assuming that where the bots came from doesn't have a way of dealing with a big one? Fast is what we want surely."

"In order to get on a fast ship, we'd need to catch up to it and somehow board it," Jones explained. "Which means either boarding it on the ground, which is covered in killbots, or boarding it in the air before it reaches space without it having a hole in it. We could pull it off with a few good grapples, but I left mine at home. Think this is the best way. Plus it sounds fun."

Jones looked for a giant ship to fly into!

Pulling towards the starport, Jones dodged out of the way of the incoming battlebots falling from the sky. The one that had veered off course was soon joined by others which appeared to co-ordinate and fly off in formation deeper into the city. A collossal explosion was heard and one of the skyscrapers started collapsing int he distance.

As the starport drew nearer, the endless expanse of flat ferrocrete was littered with the tracer fire of laser exchanges between the invaders and security forces. A number of ships were still on the surface, though many of them seemed to be under significent damage. Three ships appeared to be gaining for takeoff, with the battlebots unable to get tot hem in time. One was a large cargo freighter, its bulk absent the many cargo pods attached to its frame, reducing the weight and allowing it considerable speed. Another appeared to be a corvette, small and sleek, it still had its cargo ramp down, evidently the crew its waiting on hadnt arrived despite the danger. The third was a medium sized private craft bristling with weapons and was openly firing on the invading ground forces in support of the security. It probably explained why it and the other ships hadnt been overrun and disabled yet.

"I fear that weapon one may shoot us if we go to it. One of the others right? I still feel corvette is better, it's ramp is even open." Lucy said, pointing vigorously.

"Agreed! The corvette seems good! HOLD ON!" Jones yelled.

He would LAND THE CAR IN THE CORVETTE'S CARGO BAY!

He would LAUGH AS HE DID SO.

The airjeep drew up sparks when it landed roughly in the cargobay, but land it did, and stop in time before it crashed into the cargo bay's bulkhead. Everyone except Jones was rocked back and forth violently.

The cargobay began to shut.

"YEAH-HAH!" shouted Jones, smacking the dashboard and throwing his arms up.

He hopped out of the airjeep and glanced around for crew or passengers.

There was no one. It seemed the cargobay was emptied in a hurry.

Jones went to make his way to the bridge to see if anybody was even flying the damn thing.

Wilnarr jumped out of the jeep and ran over to whatever most looked like ramp controls. "Late, late..." he muttered, trying to find a button to close the door before they got blasted by the bots outside.

Lucy got her seatbelt off and scuttled out, paused, then stopped to help Chroma and Zigund get out and going onto the ship. "Wait, wait." She screeched.

They did not wait THEY EXPLORED!

The ship was three decks high and about half as long as a football field, between all the usual systems a ship needed it barely had any cargo space at all, with the car taking up the majority of it. They found no one on board.

Except for a sparking half mad droid in the cockpit. The droid turned its head around.

-Bep- "ARE WE CLEARED FOR TAKE OFF?" it sparked, -Bep- "YOU ARE NOT MASTER, INTRUDERS!"

Shotgun Jones pulled out his shotgun.

"NOPE! I'm the pilot!" he shouted, rolling out of the cockpit.

He wanted to blow the droid away with his shotgun, but first he wanted the droid out of the damn cockpit.

He was a good pilot, but he couldn't operate a shot-to-hell console.

At least not very well.