"...so I said to Tm'i and... Oh! Get this. You won't believe this frackin' shit."
Jor P'lmbr settled into the co-pilot seat of the
Durango. After coming up from Nok in the cramped confines of a Jast-1 cockpit, sitting in a Jast-2 felt like upgrading to
first class. Eighteen hours down on Omicron Ceti IV in a hotel room though? Shit was like going to the damn casinos on Ungara.
While the pilot rambled on, Yim threw a headset on and said, "Flight control, flight control, flight control. This is..."
Frack. What was their callsign again?
The last one had been Delta Vega... something something something Dark Side. Digging through the glove compartment, he found the flimsiplast sheet he was looking for and read the designation. "...Coyote-Two-Nine. Repeat, this is Coyote-Two-Nine, outbound for Talkor. Request clearance to depart."
"So, Tm'i was talking to Dena. You know? The Ungaran chick in finance with the freakin' chest like to here," Jor was saying, with the absolutely obligatory gesture to help illustrate the questionably relevant point of the precise dimensions of that particular part of Dena's anatomical structure. "I swear to
gaaaaaawd, she was wearin' this white thing the other day and it was like, the hills are alive, man!"
"Acknowledged, Coyote-Two-Nine. Please proceed out on heading two-one-one mark four until clear of all vessels, then you are free to manuever."Yim reached up to toggle the comlink. "Coyote-Two-Nine. Roger. Out."
Jor turned his head and belched loudly, clearing his throat before he looked over at Yim and asked, "Where we going again? Talkor?"
Pulling up a datapad, Yim sketched out a quick flightpath and passed it over for review. "Yeah, take us up the Scylla Trade Route toward Asteroid Blue Heaven, then just drop back a parsec."
Jor started shaking his head. "Nah, man. Nah. Are you kidding?" With his finger, Jor swiped upward and then across. "Run up the Styggian Sector to the Milky Way and then it's a frackin' straight frackin' shot, man. Half the time, brah."
Leaning back in his seat, Jor reached over to pull the release on the docking clamp and started easing the freighter away from the landing bay. "So anyway, Tm'i was talkin' to Dena. And she said, get this, she was talkin' to her boss and he said the frackin' board was voting to kill our dental coverage."
"What?"
"I know, right!" Jor exclaimed, as he guided the freighter up into the air. The starport fell out of view, as the freighter began easing overhead of a futuristic metropolis. "And I just put braces on my kid? Frack this, man. We get back from this, I'm doin' it. I'm callin' that MogulTech recruiter back." Pausing a moment, Jor leaning forward as he peered down and checked his instruments. "We good on your side?"
"Hang on a second, we got a light on engine three..."
There was a sudden explosion, but neither man heard the sound. Instead, the sudden drop in altitude was the only thing on the mind of either man, as both raced to try and perform emergency actions.
There merely wasn't time as a high rise apartment rushed toward them, as the orientation toward the ground began to spiral out of control...
In the greater cosmos, the people are protected by two sides in the interstellar justice system; the Lanterns who investigate crimes and the local authorities who prosecute the offenders. The call came in at five oh-eight, Oa Standard Time. A emergency call on a planet inside Sector 2814. That makes it my problem. My name is Kai-ro. I carry a ring.G R E E N L A N T E R N
"MARY JANE'S LAST DANCE" || PART I || POST THEME
The fire spread across five city blocks.
The
Durango had struck a residential apartment building, before breaking apart and raining chaos and destruction on the surrounding buildings. The impact alone had caused structural damage and created debris that would have been problematic by itself.
Except the fuel in the
Durango had ignited, several components erupting into metal fires that burned with an intensity that challenged a terrestrial fire department under the best conditions.
These were not the best conditions.
Then, to top it all off, the apartment building had collapsed, sowing further chaos and debris across a wide area. By the time that the Green Lanterns had arrived, city and spaceport emergency services were already overwhelmed. As other buildings within and around the crash site began catching fire, the situation was quickly getting out of hand. Omicron Ceti IV was burning.
For the residents in 8497-J, there was no where to go but up. The lower floors of their building had become quickly engulfed in flame, the installed fire retardant system overwhelmed by the intensity of the metal-based fires that was carving a swath across the city.
As their building began to disintegrate, there seemed no choice but to stand and die... and jump.
Some jumped.
...and were shocked when a large,
green hand reached out toward them.
The large green construct was connected to a creature who was,
for lack of better term, a
flying squirrel. "What fresh hell is
this?" Ch'p demanded, as the H'lven Green Lantern scooped people from out of the air.
A large green blanket spread through the streets, as a young Tibetan monk -- covered in soot and ash -- worked to try and smother the flames.
"The middle of an inferno is sooooo not the time for hell metaphors," the boy muttered.
A sound overhead heralded the overflight of a white Sentinel-class patrol cruiser. Based on Kymellian SmartShip technology, the Green Lantern vessel was isolating and working to extinguish the fire with green energy constructs of its own.
They'd been at it now for over an hour.
Kai-ro couldn't even tell if they'd even managed to
slow the fire yet.
Cyrania,
Guardian Angel Haruki,
Valen,
N3v3rM0r3,
ZwagXerathYT,
Lurking Krog,
vue2026,
RPM,
Finetales,
mattmanganon
