2014.01.05 - Jailbreak

The Starjammer made a brief stopover on one of Chandilar's deserted moons, allowing the crew time to conceal and remove some obvious modifications. The ship is still a Shi'ar craft after all and looks at home in orbit above the Throneworld. Now, the vessel speeds low through the atmosphere towards the towering spires of the Imperial Palace.

“Have twenty minute window,” Hepzibah's voice comes through the intercom in the cargo bay, “Must leave then. No more. Find Corsair.”

Scott nods his head and turns to Jean as the ship makes it's approach to the Palace, “There's two guards on the maintenance shaft entrance. Do you think you can knock them out long enough for us to get past and get back?”

"Sure," Jean replies, watching the approach through the viewscreen. "As long as they're susceptible to my telepathy." Or, of course, she could just toss them really hard into a wall with her telekinesis. That'd probably work, too. It'd just be noisier.

Speaking of telepathy... She glances to Scott, now. "Do you have the layout of the place? Let me see it?" She can pick it from his mind, after all.

“It's all in there,” Scott answers, lifting a finger to his temple as he opens his mind to Jean, “This is the path of least resistance. From what I can tell he's alright.”

The ship comes to a halt, hovering above two Shi'ar guards who look up at it and raise their weapons warily.

“It's time.”

Jean takes a moment, now that she has permission, to lift the layout and the plan from Scott's mind, so that they really are on the same page. A sense of her presence lingers, however, a trace of that psychic bond, renewed for the sake of teamwork and the mission.

"Let's do this," she tells him, as the Shi'ar raise their weapons.

Her eyes glow briefly and her mind snakes out towards them. A moment later, both have their eyes rolling back in their heads and are collapsing bonelessly to the ground with nary a shot fired.

Jean lowers them both to the ground without mishap. How many times have they done this over the years? And, despite the fact it's an infiltration, she doesn't expect him to be subtle. As he blasts his hole, she muffles the sound by touching the minds within hearing distance and telling them to ignore it. She must rely on the Starjammers, however, to keep the security system from sounding. That's not her area of expertise.

With a little telekinetic push, she lifts the pair of them into the shaft and begins moving forward, as certain as her partner is about where they're headed, now.

The alarms do not ring and the laser grid within the maintenance shaft flickers off a moment after the pair enter it. Raza seems to have deftly taken care of the security systems.

As they move down the maintenance shaft, Scott glances sidelong at Jean.

"When we reach the sub-corridor, you take the guard in the security room and I'll take the one on patrol."

Jean nods simply in response, continuing to move ahead. They slide down a couple of shafts, making their way to the sub-corridor. At an appropriate junction, she pauses and peers through a vent, into the security room. Again, that faint glow. Her mind lashes out with precision and, one telepathic bolt later, the guard is slumped unconscious on the floor, just like his brethren outside.

The guard on patrol doesn't get quite so easy a finish as being telepathically willed to sleep. The vent is removed and Scott descends silently into the sub-corridor, stepping up behind the patrolling guard and wrapping his forearm around his throat. In a matter of seconds the Shi'ar finishes thrashing and passes out, Scott crouching to lay the body on the floor.

That done, he begins to move along the featureless steel wall that lines one side of the sub-corridor. According to the plans, the cells and their entrances are on the other side.

Jean slides into the security office and starts looking at the computers. Reaching into the unconscious mind beside her, she gains understanding of its interface and language, proceeding to call up the cell block status and cams.

~ Got him. ~ she sends to Scott, sending the location of Corsair to him in a glyph. ~ I'm going to disable the failsafes and pop the door. Anyone else you want to spring, while I'm here? ~

“All of them,” Scott answers flatly, taking a step back and lifting a hand to the side of his visor, “I've got the doors.”

He lets loose a burst of crimson energy, trailing it along the wall of the sub-corridor in a horizontal line. The metal crumples out of the way, Cyclops' control allowing him to avoid harming the occupants of the cells on the other side.

Only a handful remain in the Imperial dungeon. The rest have either been executed or shipped off to the slave pits already. At the end of the row comes Corsair, a knowing grin on his face.

“All of you. Follow us.”

Okay. Well, Jean could have just deactivated the locks. But, the ruby blast works, too. Giving a mild shrug -- what can you do? -- she steps out of the office and jogs to join him down in the cell block just as the freed prisoners start stepping from their cells.

A faint frown touches her lips, however. On a hunch, she expands her awareness, trying to guess if this really is 'too easy' or just 'that easy', instead. They're up against the Shi'ar. They're also busting Christopher Summers out of jail.

The Imperial Guard can't help but get involved somehow.

“I know,” Scott says quietly, as though sensing Jean's unspoken trepidation, “It seems too easy. Our best bet is to get out of here fast and hope they don't have time to spring whatever trap they've laid down.”

That said, he gestures for Jean to follow Corsair back into the vent so he can bring up the rear of the party.

It really is going too easily.

They're letting the prisoners precede them into the vent? Neither taking point? Jean follows Corsair, but, again, her mind sweeps on ahead. Not only does she seek the Imperial Guard, but, perhaps being uncharacteristically paranoid, she also starts scanning the minds of the other prisoners.

Hey, it's possible one of them is a plant, just waiting for the right moment to spring the trap.

And Jean hates surprises.

The Starjammer waits at the other end of the maintenance shaft. Scott's concern is the danger coming from the rear, hence his remaining there with the brunt of their 'firepower'.

Jean's scan of their surrounds yield no sign of anything but run of the mill palace guards. The prisoners all seem genuine as well, their minds focused only on escaping the tortures of a Shi'ar dungeon.

“Jean,” Scott calls out as they near the exist, “Do you sense there anything?”

"No," Jean replies softly, her voice echoing back to him a little. She sounds a trifle uneasy as she says it, however. Particularly since she knows from experience that the Imperial Guard has some fairly impressive telepathic firepower at their disposal. "But, that doesn't mean there isn't."

She slides forward, now, giving the prisoners a telekinetic push up a couple of the passage they slid down, just because of the angle of the incline. It might unnerve them a little, but at least they're quiet.

“Well, let them come,” Scott answers defiantly, making his way to the front of the column just in time to exit the maintenance shaft onto the surface.

The Starjammer waits, it's cargo bay open, but there is little else. Raza Longknife grins at them, waving the prisoners past and onto the transport.

“Their security systems did crumble,” Raza boasts, “With the help of the Lady Grey.”

Jean slides out of the shaft, into the open. She inclines her head modestly to Raza, a faint smile on her face. But her concern hasn't faded. Even as the prisoners load themselves onto the Starjammer, she glances to its crew and her fellow X-Man. "We need to up the pace, I think. This has been too uneventful to make me comfortable." Funny thing to say.

But, nothing is ever this easy for the X-Men. Ever.

No sooner has Jean voiced her concerns and the last of the escapees are loaded on the Starjammer does her hunch prove correct. Just as Scott and Jean step into the cargo bay the sky suddenly fills with Shi'ar vessels of all shapes and sizes – war ships.

“Go!” Scott shouts, though command is quickly taken by Corsair who charges out of the cargo bay to take his place in the Captain's seat.

“Evasive manuevers!” shouts the elder Summers, “Get us out of here now!”

See? It's not paranoia, if you're right. Jean follows Scott swiftly onto the bridge, as his father starts barking orders. She grabs a nearby console and hangs on, in case the inertial dampeners don't do their job quite right. The contact with the bulkhead, however, also gives her a better ability to throw a TK shield beneath the ship's own shields as a secondary line of defense.

Just in case.

The ship takes off at speed, dodging and weaving as enemy cannons fire indiscriminately in their direction. The inside of the Starjammer rocks and shakes violently as the crew manuever it through the attacking fleet, pushing maximum speed as they rocket back towards space.

“We can outrun these Shi'ar slugs,” Corsair declares, glancing over his shoulder at Jean and Scott just long enough to say, “Good to see you.”

"Good to see you, too," Jean says automatically. And, on some level, it is. She kinda owes the man her thanks for screw Scott's head back on straight. But, at the same time... Christmas! He interrupted Christmas! "Merry Christmas, by the way. Happy New Year." Just in case he didn't know what time of the year it was back on Earth.

Her eyes dart to the view screens and station information reads. Fact is, aside from being a backup shield, there's not a lot she can do here. This is all on the ship's crew.

“Is it?” Corsair asks, raising an eyebrow without taking his eyes off the ship's controls, “Guess I wasn't locked away as long as I thought, then. You kids hang on.”

No sooner has he said it than the Starjammer begins to shake, pushing the very upper limits of the speeds it is capable of. It takes it's licks, shuddering and groaning under enemy fire, but keeps going until finally it breaks free of the atmosphere.

“It's gonna take them a few moments to rally and chase us,” Corsair points out, “Set course for Earth and engage silent running.”

Jean hangs on. Not much else she can do. She gives a wry smile at Corsair's conclusion. But just shakes her head lightly. "Home in time to see the ball drop," she says, eyeing Scott briefly.

When they enter space proper, however, putting distance between themselves and the Shi'ar, she relaxes a little. At least, she stands up straight and comes to stand beside Scott. "I'm thinking we need to give up vacations," she says dryly.

As the Starjammer jumps to cruising speed and leaves Chandilar far behind, Scott nods his head solemnly at Jean.

“I think you're right,” he pauses a moment, squaring his jaw before speaking again, “Look, I know I went rushing into things with the proposal. It's just that, well, things have been good ... “

Alien abduction and prison raids not withstanding.

Jean glances around at the crew, and her nose wrinkles. This is not a conversation she wants to have in front of them. Nor in front of Corsair. "They have been," she agrees. She takes Scott's hand and draws him off to one side, away from the others.

"Scott, I love you. I really do. I doubt that will ever change." But... there's definitely a but in there. "But, it's too soon. Everything that's happened lately? Future timelines, kids from different timelines all claiming us as their parents, Sinister trying to take our DNA?" She shakes her head. "I can't, Scott. I just can't marry you. I won't lock us into that future. I can't."

"I'm sorry," Jean says again, truly remorseful. She leans in to kiss him, though maybe it's not as deep as it has been in the past. More because she doesn't know that he'll accept it. "But, I do love you... I do."

Still, it's tough for any relationship to survive a denied proposal.

And just when things were finally mended, too.

Damn it.

It isn't exactly a great feeling but their relationship has had enough problems that he's not about to let this destroy it. He lifts his head in time to return the kiss, going easy on it before breaking it to reply.

“I love you, too. Let's just ... let's just keep things how they are, okay?”

"Okay," Jean smiles, perhaps relief in her eyes. "Okay." She leans her forehead to his, brows bumping his visor, arms looped about his waist. "But, right now... Let's just go home." Or back to the cabin.

There might still be a couple of days of vacation left, right?