Part 83: Holiday Update: Let's Read: Planet X - Part 8
STAR TREK The Next Generation / X-MEN: PLANET X - part 8Last Time: Worf broke King Cold's engines. He'll have to walk home. It's a good thing his people can breathe in space (they can't).
Chapter 23
We join Worf, pelting down the corridor (author's words), with Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko hot on his heels. They're heading for the Connecticut's transporter bay, because… its shields are still up, and that's a stupid idea.
Suddenly, a force field happens and Archangel flies right through it, knocking himself unconscious. Banshee freaks out, but Worf restrains him, then reveals that the Draa'kon are sucking the air out of the corridor. Wow, it's great when the enemy's master plan for dealing with you is guessed in a matter of seconds after it's enacted.
Worf shoots the force field and fails. Banshee yells at the force field and fails. Banshee yells while Worf shoots the force field, and it works (but Banshee passes out from lack of oxygen). Trap disarmed, moving on. They should've sent the party rogue in first.
Meanwhile, Riker lands in Verdeen. We're treated to a scene where he critiques the city's planners, then spots some waves of King Cold's soldiers chasing some NotHumans, and immediately jumps to the conclusion that they're the transformed. So he lands. We then learn that the NotHumans need to hire an architect, because their building design sucks.
Planet X posted:
None of the buildings surrounding him was more than a dozen stories tall. They were utilitarian, to say the least, each of them displaying the same oval windows and grey, unadorned façade.
In other words, the city is boring. Just like this book, Ooooh!
Riker then briefs Sovar, Storm, and Shadowcat-the idea being to slaughter as many of King Cold's forces as he can before they're discovered. Blood for the Blood God! Storm advises caution, because the transformed could be dangerous. Riker tries to dismiss her warning because they're just kids.
He then tells everyone to split into pairs. He goes with Storm, Shadowcat goes with Sovar, and his four redshirts pair off to go get killed off-screen.
We then return to Data and Nightcrawler, who have beaten Worf to the transporter room. Data asks what happened to Lt. Dies Horribly, and Worf confirms that he died. Data kills the Connecticut's shields, and beams everyone to the Enterprise. Data sees Banshee get shot, but Banshee's fine because yelling solves all of his problems. The author then spooges:
Planet X posted:
The android recalled the mutant's cry and understood. But then, after what he had seen Nightcrawler accomplish, he should have known better than to underestimate the resourcefulness of an X-Man.
And the chapter ends. No cliffhanger?! That makes 3 chapters so far that didn't end on one!
Chapter 24
Planet X posted:
CAPTAIN'S LOG, SUPPLEMENTAL. As we race to effect repairs to the Enterprise, I find myself locked in a stalemate with High Implementor Isadjo of the brutal Draa'kon.
While our weapons and our deflector shields are useless at the moment, we still retain some mobility at impulse speeds. The Connharakt, on the other hand, still boasts the use of her shields and some of her weapon batteries-but thanks to the success of our saboteurs, she sits dead in the water, incapable of offering pursuit.
A message has been sent to the nearest starbase, notifying it of our predicament. Xhaldia is, therefore, assured of assistance, regardless of what happens to the Enterprise-though I do not know when that assistance will arrive or in what form.
In the meantime, I have ordered the dispatch of a third shuttle to the city of Verdeen on Xhaldia's northern continent. After all, our efforts will have availed us nothing if we cannot stop the Draa'kon from carrying out their agenda on the planet's surface…
Whatever that agenda may be.
So… why'd we even need the last few chapters, now? Does the Author think we're not paying attention, and that we need the first 3/4ths of the book summarized? I get the feeling this was just thrown in so we could have Worf on the surface too.
Regardless, it has no bearing on what we see next, as Dr. Crusher is monitoring Angel, who's recovering far more quickly than she'd expected. Archangel wakes up and declares that he should be with the other X-Men, so Dr. Crusher arranges to let him visit the bridge so he can monitor them with Picard and help Picard 'anticipate what they'll do'. Which is a very pretty way to describe what he's actually going to be doing: nothing.
We then join Lt. Sovar and Shadowcat on NotEarth. They're setting an ambush for a group of Draa'kon who're themselves chasing a group of transformed.
Planet X posted:
He pointed for Shadowcat's benefit. "Look," he said, wincing in sympathy. "The poor boy."
The mutant looked, her hazel eyes narrowing at the sight. "I wonder if it hurts."
Sovar wondered, too. After all, the Xhaldian's bare arms, visible through large rips in his sleeves, were ridged over with huge, purple blood vessels. His legs seemed so heavy he could hardly run and there was barely any brush left on his head.
Hey, look, it's Dongs! … Lt. Sovar doesn't recognize his own brother, how tragic!
I actually feel sorta bad for Lt. Sovar, though. He's plotting out the ambush and basically admits that he's just a red shirt so chances are pretty good he's going to get killed; but he has to do something to hel-then Shadowcat ghosts him into a better sniping position. Camping noob.
Shadowcat then starts tripping the Draa'kon, and Sovar shoots one of them. Then our buddy
Also, in the fight, Corba was stunned. It's supposed to be sad, but it just means she won't be getting any more lines for a while. Awesome.
Lt. Sovar then tries to help his brother, but Dongs is too small a man-and his spirit too flaccid-to accept any help from a brother he believes betrayed him. He picks up Corba and lumbers off with her. Lt. Sovar, genius Starfleet tactical officer that he is, just sorta stands there and watches.
Chapter 25
We cut back to Crusher, who finally gets around to asking Picard if Archangel can hang out on the bridge. Picard is skeptical of Archangel's ability to contribute anything but distraction, but Picard decides being distracted at a critical juncture is a small price to pay for getting Archangel to stop whining, and decides to let him on the bridge.
On her way back to Archangel, Beverly Crusher has a bizarre idea about asking some other mutant on the ship for help. Since Archangel is the only one not on NotEarth, that doesn't make sense. For once, I'm going to leave this an actual cliffhanger because spoilers here would ruin the (retarded) surprise.
We then cut to Troi and Colossus. Colossus gets several lines here, amazingly. He's grumpy because they've found some NotHumans being interrogated by the Draa'kon. The NotHumans are glad the transformed are being taken away, and that hurts Colossus' feelings.
Planet X posted:
He grunted, his expression still heavy with indignation. "It is always that way, is it not? They hate us, they revile us, and yet we help them anyway."
Troi suggests Colossus will have difficulty getting close to the Draa'kon. So he rips up a chunk of concrete and throws it at the Draa'kon.
We then cut to Data who's being retarded. He's in a firefight with the Draa'kon and muses over their tactics: herd the transformed together so they can be captured and brought up to the Connecticut. Data then asks 'why', but decides it's a stupid question and gets back to shooting at the Draa'kon.
Two redshirts then die, and Data feels bad about it because he has emotions right now, and Nightcrawler suggests they're losing the fight. Nightcrawler then teleports Data inside the building which is full of transformed. Their surprise entrance goes about as well as you'd expect.
Planet X posted:
Before [Nightcrawler] could finish his disclaimer, the air around his head turned into a solid crystal. Unable to breathe, the already weakened Nightcrawler fell to the ground, his eyes staring and filled with horror.
The android knelt and took the crystal in his hands, hoping he could break it without harming his friend. But before he could make the attempt, someone raised her fist and pierced him with a bolt of charged plasma.
Oh no, Data! Nightcrawler! They're done fo-hahaha, no, they'll be fine. But this is a cliffhanger so the chapter ends.
Next Time: Dr. Crusher does something retarded, Data and Nightcrawler are fine, we learn why King Cold is here (for the transformed, derp), and the Draa'kon say fuck it and King Cold fires a death ball at the planet. That'll teach those stupid monkeys.