2013.07.10 - Du Matin, Part 2

The Planet Tarmetheon

By now the gunboats are landing and soldiered Matin troops are making their way towards the trio of Green Lantern, Superman, and Hildegarth. The latter is a fugitive of law, accused of the theft of stolen goods from the Matinese people. The goods in particular, have not been analyzed, but it's clear that the economic juggernaut, Matin, was serious upon getting the stolen goods back.

Much of the story hasn't made sense thus far. Hildegarth has been reported as a hardcore fugitive with a rap sheet a mile long, but looks more like a naked mouse than a hardened criminal. Additionally, no one seems to have ever heard of this "Galaxy's Most Wanted" before this particular incident.

Now, as the troops are descending upon them, Superman keeps his eyes on the oncomers but his voice is calm and low.

"Any ideas, Lantern?"

Hal watches the landing troops with his lips pressed into a fine line across what is exposed of his face. Down at his side, the power ring glows a bit brighter when he clinches his hand into a tight ball, then relaxes it with a slow shake of his head.

White washed eyes move to regard Hildegarth, "You have exactly one opertunity to come clean with /anything/ I can use to reason with the Matin. Much of this story doesn't make sense, but without 'something' I cannot in good confidence deny them their prisoner."

It really wouldn't take much. Jordan was anything if not a rebel when he felt something was 'off'. His gaze shifts to Superman, expression tight. "Something is wrong, we both know that..."

Hildegarth is nervously backing up. There's nowhere to go; just rocky dust for miles and miles until you round the small planet and end up back where you were. There's no escape for him.

Superman nods to Green Lantern in agreement. Something is definitely wrong, but what? "I think maybe we sho-"

The Man of Steel's words are cut off by Hildegarth as the alien blurts out his defense. "I stole it because I wanted to unleash the truth to the galaxy. The truth about the Matin's. They aim to exploit alien worlds, drain their resources and then move on. It's all right here." He points to his case, but with their backs to him, no one can really see it.

Hal blows out a breath from his nostrils and watches the approaching Matin landing force, which even to his estimation is excessive for the criminal they've come to pick up. "They clearly don't want him to get away... him or the information." Nodding his head to the side, half glancing back at Hildegarth, "Time I found out why."

The Lantern straightens and flashes a bright emerald green, lifting off the air, "See if you can't find out what's on that case... unless you would rather stall the Matin's?" Just the barest hint of a grin on his face.

Superman nods to Green Lantern and reaches over for the case. "You've got to let me see what's in there, Hildegarth. It could be your only way o---"

KERSPOOOOOOOOO!

When Superman reaches for the case, an orange energy blast is fired from one of the Matin's long staffs. Hit by surprise, Superman rolls a few times on the dusty surface. There's Hildegarth, then about 10 paces there is the bag, and then about 10 more, there's Superman.

"Green Lantern!" announces the speaker, his voice booming from the largest of the gunboats, "The information therein is confidential! We request both the case back unmolested!"

Lantern doesn't have time to react, he never would have thought the Matin's would attack him or Superman... but he does bring up a large green shield over himself that extends out just far enough to cover his friend until he's a chance to gain his footing.

Hal's voice is amplified by the ring so that he can be clearly heard, "You have attacked a representative duely appointed by me to act in my investigation and recovery of the wanted criminal Hildegarth without provication." He's controlling his voice... trying to act in accordance of what he 'knew' Sinestro would demand... at least until they gave him one more reason not to.

"You have sent a warship and an invasion force... So I have to wonder whether you have lost trust in the Green Lantern Corps or if calling upon us for assistance was a farce? Either way... I will see what's in that case for myself."

There's a brief pause and silence.

One soldier looks towards another.

Suddenly, the voice on the loudspeaker booms, "Attack!!!"

It's not just measley orange weapon staffs anymore (which were, strong enough to put Superman on his butt). The blasts come not only from the soldiers, but from the massive laser cannons upon the ships too.

Worse, Green Lantern's ring will start chirping madly as the transmission line it has with Oa is being disrupted. It appears that the Matin's are jamming them

That was what he expected and exactly what he was looking for... which to many people might be considered suicidal, but Hal Jordan saw it as proof enough to do what had to be done. Act. The shield strengthens under the onslaught, but there's only so much he can withstand and only so long he can withstand it... His jaw clinches and his eye go back to Superman, "I'm going to need you on your feet here buddy, I don't think they want to play nice..."

And to Hildegarth, "And I'm not done with you, either... So don't think this is a free pass.. Right now I need you to /MOVE/."

Then he's pressing the attack in return. When those heavy cannons start piercing his shield.

The Lantern takes to the sky, encasing himself in an emerald armor when he lands amidst the soldiers with his arms suddenly thrashing about with long tendrals of green energy like whips extending right out of his fists. Closing the distance on the invasion force to see if the gunships are willing to fire on their own people to keep this quiet.

Superman knows he can't be in two spots at once. He needs to defend themselves against attack, but must also protect HIldegarth. hat's it! The caves!"

Moving so fast that neither humans nor Matin's can see him, Superman scoops up Hildegarth and the precious cargo in one swoop and whisks them off and down into the caves similar to where he was originally hiding, but many, many miles away to maintain his cover. If the Matin's scan for him, it'll take some time, and time was what Superman needed.

"Stay here."

BOOOOOM!

Superman breaks the sound barrier as he bursts through one of the alien gunships, neatly slicing it in two. As he becomes visible again, one can see escape pods billowing out of the ship as it slowly descends from the sky for a crash landing.

Green Lantern pulls himself into the heat of the battle, drawing close to his enemies in hopes of avoiding fire by the Matin's avoiding friendly fire.

There's no such luck, however, as the gunships continue to fire, evaporating several of their allies. They seem very, very intent on destroying all of the important pieces of the puzzle. If that means a few grunts die, they're willing to live with the sacrifice.

Well that was quite another piece of the puzzle set into place for Hal. His form of detective work probably wouldn't make Batman's 'top ten' list, but it was getting the job done as far as the Lantern was concerned. Regardless, he was no where near in a position to combat a gunships heavy lasers for long, even if he wanted to draw this battle out.

Which he most certainly did not.

His arm whirls above his head and slams straight down into the ground, creating a powerful emerald 'drill' that he lets loose cracking and breaking the surface of the planet... Then he too takes flight, strengthening the energy shield out ahead of him as he approaches one of the gunships, spinning and twirling out of the way of the most deadily of attacks until he's close enough to throw an emerald lance right through one of the powerful turbine engines.

The drill, as it turns out, was disrupting the surface above those tunnels Superman had found... if he judged the depth and the strength of the drill needed, it should all cave in beneath the grunts on the ground. Buying them even more time and a bit of breathing room.

As the drill sputters and digs, it doesn't initially appear to be doing much of anything. In fact, some of the Matinese Soldiers even start laughing at it.

Their joke is cut short though, as they and about a hundred of their closest friends all fall into what can best be described as a gigantic sinkhole.

Suckers.

Meanwhile, GL's javelin pierces the turbine and sends the ship, nose pointed downward at 45 degrees, into a slow tailspin.

Superman, meanwhile, does another trick. He grabs another gun boat, under the frame and launches it unceremoniously out into space back from whence it came.

There are a handful of gunships left, including the command ship.

Lantern grabs the falling gunship and settles it to the ground easily, instead of letting it crash land into the planet. He can only hope that the Matin soldiers able to survive, but he wasn't going to be able to do much more than that...

His arm comes up to thrash away another heavy blast against a very large shield that materializes on his forearm. The second breaks the barrier in half and the third is dodged. The first two send him spinning backwards with the concussive force and knock the wind from him... "They're not playing at all..."

The Lantern rockets off towards another of the gunships, the one which fired upon him, and flips his hands up in the air. A large flat 'spatula' (for lack of a better definition) slaps the underside of the left most wing, sending it barrelling away, though it is unlikely to be destroyed, hopefully it messes with the manuevering jets. "Last chance to give up this fight! It doesn't have to go down like this."

Though the response doesn't come, it's clear that the Matins are giving one from their actions-"Yes it does."

Though the heroes don't know it, death awaits any soldier here who does not come back with the goods. So, there is at least some reason to their madness.

A blue-red streak soars underneath GL, then upwards and underneath the command ship.

Superman blasts a mighty hole into its underbelly. After, he inverts his hands and grips each side of the hole before starting to pull outward. A terrible sound of tearing metal begins to grow from underneath the gunship.

An opening to end this and Lantern sees it in the form of a streak of blue-red and the sound of tearing metal. Hal doesn't fly right at it, but instead uses himself as a decoy to give the Man of Steal time, flying inbetween two of the gunships after getting their targets sighted on him and letting himself fall directly out of the sky once each is pointed at the other.

BOOM BOOM

Hopefully two down and an opening opened... The Lantern flips, rolls and flies right at the opening Superman is creating in the underbelly of the ship, trying to fly INTO the command ship where he can have a little face to face talk with the Commanding officer. See if terms can be reached... and if not. There's options for that too.

The widening continues to open after Green Lantern enters, until finally there's a release and the ship tears completely in two. Everyone in each side of the now broken ship is thrown forward as Superman sort of holds the halves at either side.

As GL floats downwards he can see the Matinese commander in a classic white battle uniform, a custom on their planet.

"Curse you Lantern! You have given us death!"

Outside, things have gotten quiet. They might have been willing to fire on peons, but not as willing to fight on their own commander.

The Lantern hovers a few steps above the deck plating and floats steadily towards the Commander, "You would have been wise to voice this oposition to my involvement rather than firing on me." He says in a voice that is stern, but not harsh. He can and does understand the orders of a military... which is not to say he's forgiving of them.

"Under article Seven zero seven thirty, I am placing your fleet under command of the Green Lantern Corps. Your personele will be escorted back to Matin, however, you will be placed under arrest and face judgement for your attack by the Guardians on Oa."

The fist where the ring is worn rises slowly, "Surrender. And I assure you no more of your men will be harmed. A full investigation will be conducted and your cooperation will be noted in my review of the situation."

The commander sighs and knows he's got no chance. It's unclear if the Matin's could beat Green Lantern or Superman on their own, much less together. It appears that Hildegarth is going to escape their clutches. Immediately, anyhow.

Outside, Superman is keeping an ear to the proceedings and all the while lowering the commandship to the ground. All of the remaining gunboats are now taking nonthreatening approaches as they've been called down by the Commander.

Superman disappears in a whoosh and returns just as quickly with Hildegarth, who looks as relieved as possible that he wasn't burned to a crisp.

The Lantern puts the Commander in 'cuffs' and tags him for transport to Oa, but does not immediately send the man away by one of those wormhole portal things, instead he walks him out with a hand firmly on his shoulder. Not to parade him about infront of his men, but to show them that no tricks have been pulled prior to facilitating their return.

"Ships of the Matinian fleet. You are free to return to Matin, however, an escort can be provided if you are concerned for your reception. None will be harmed.. the entirty of this engagement has been logged and sent to Oa and your coorperation with my recommendations have been sent as well." Glancing up to the lowering ships.

"Hildegarth will stand trial for his crimes, but the information he took will be needed for that trial. When it has been concluded, all material will be returned..." Which buys them time to see exactly what the Matin's are up to. FULL investigation style.. with a company of Lantern's and the Superman to back them up.

Looking to the Man of Steel, "Got anything you want to add? They did shoot at you first..."

Superman shrugs his shoulders.

"As long as I get the burn marks out of my cape, I'll be a happy camper."