Hive Number One

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Hive Number One

Will do, promise.

He beat a retreat from her mind when he sensed another trying to enter, one that he didn't sense was hostile, so he moved out and off to one side. "Agreed, plus I think I hear them trying to climb up the hole we made now, so we may not want to be here when they figure out how to use ladders."

As if to accentuate his point, clanging sounds could be hear, but it sounded more like something was jumping up and down than anything dangerous, at least for the moment.



At Tsuki's end something strange happened. The terminal she was looking at suddenly sprang more to life, and more systems opened up for her to explore. Some were restricted, but she was able to see that something was happening inside the hive. Specifically, the areas the two groups were in suddenly sprang up with dots, indicating their positions. This could only mean that they were now being tracked by some kind of sensor network.

The second thing, and possibly most disturbing thing she noticed was, the interior of the hive, specifically around the main core was beginning to change. It wouldn't take long for her to realize that the walls themselves were MOVING, as they were doing so in front of her eyes too. While they all were fine where they were, the core gradually became inaccessible, blocked off by walls that seemingly had grown out of nowhere.



About the same time this was going on, Siphon suddenly stiffened in mid joke, suddenly sensing another presence that had most definitely NOT been there a moment ago. A strange, impossible, yet familiar one. "Oh shit."

That was all he said before fully stiffening, seemingly concentrating on something, though gods knew what.

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Hive Number One

Grave noticed the change in Siphon's attitude and cursed. The warrior unsheathed his sword and took a careful look around. "There's something in here, right? Something we don't want to meet?" He couldn't tell why, but Grave was beginning to feel uneasy.

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Hive Number One

Shrike felt the new presence as well, but was less prepared to deal with it. Her mental conversation with Copper came to an abrupt halt as she experienced a kind of feedback loop, and had to stop and hold her head for a second while it cleared. "Son of a... What the hell is that?"

 

[Copper]

Re: Hive Number One

"Leaving is good," she agrees with Siphon, walking with Shrike as they head back. "Hopefully I'll be a little more ready next time, too. I was a little spent, which tends to make it difficult to hold off on feeding."

Maybe both our faults, then. I didn't consider that any of you would get hurt and that it would set me off. A mental chuckle. Yeah, when I get hungry, I get like that. The Beast takes over and I can only run with it. Maybe if you are prepared next time, you'll be able to beat me off. Another laugh, though she falls quiet. You mean...er, heh. Yeah, it is. The warm tinglies help make it so people don't want us to stop feeding. Distraction, if we want to drain them or, well, happy trade off if we only take a nip.

She's not quite attuned to whatever it is the others are picking up on, but she's picking up on them, instantly quiet and alert. Being closest, she put a hand on Shrike's back, arching a brow at her, silently asking if she's all right.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Hive Number One

There is a long pause from Siphon, as if he is stretching his mind outward to be certain of something. Finally he replies in a stunned, yet anxious voice, "he's here. The other creature that is like me is somewhere in this hive, I'm sure of it. I can sense him. I can't tell where he is, but he's somewhere inside of this hive. Shrike, if you can, put up mental barriers NOW, because if this one has anything like the same abilities I have, he likely won't hesitate to try and rip information out of your head."

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Hive Number One

"I'll give it a shot, but honestly, I have only a clue how, you're the first I've met that would have been able to, so I've never had a chance to test out how." Shrike says as she gives her head a shake and starts moving again. She withdraws into herself mentally and Siphon can see he building layers of pointless surface thoughts, obviously a crude countermeasure but maybe the redundancy will make them adequate.

 

[Copper]

Re: Hive Number One

"Guess I'll just have to subject it to multiplication tables and the 'Song that never ends.' Crap. Okay, no problem getting that stuck in my head. Maybe we'll get lucky and we won't see the big scary monster man on the way out." Definite sarcasm, given that her posture shows that she's every bit on alert.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Hive Number One

"I'd prefer not to meet up with him if we can avoid it."

He pauses and blinks, staring past Copper out into a hallway. "Holy shit, the goddamn walls are moving!"

If they looked, they would see that they were, sort of. While one or two walls seemed to move positions, others simply grew in place where there had once been openings.

"Hmm, I'd better see if Tsuki has.... OH FUCKING HELL!"

Instantly he's grabbed the radio, and has spoken into it before anyone can ask him anything. "Tsuki, this is Siphon. Be advised there IS another creature like myself in the hive, and he is likely telepathic. If you have ANY, and I mean ANY kind of mental barriers, you need to get them up NOW before he has a chance to try anything."

There is a moment of uneasiness now while he waits for her to reply.

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Hive Number One

Shrike calmly walks up to the brand new wall that blocks their path. "Oh come on, I cut down a dozen walls like this just to get to the engine area." She states nonchalantly, a blade appearing in each hand. She leans toward the wall and does a quick spin, both blades disappearing into the wall almost all the way up to her hands. She smiles, but instead of a circular section of wall simply falling out of place, nothing happens. Her smile turns into a frown, and she pipes up again. "But those ones weren't growing as fast as I could cut them, hmm..."

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Hive Number One

Grave sighed. "Well, damn. There's a monster running around this place, the walls are moving and we can't do anything about it... We're all gonna die." He certainly was sarcastic, but it was a very grim kind of humor. After saying that, Grave relaxed, then concentrated. His breath became very quiet, and with each passing second the warrior's presence was becoming harder to pick up. "I can hide my presence quite well... But I'm not sure how effective it's going to be against that thing."

 

[Tsuki]

Re: Hive Number One

Tsuki had become slightly engrossed in the face that the terminal had seemingly completely opened up. It took her a few moments before she actually registered that she needed to talk with the others.

"Mental barriers? I'm a techie, not a psychologist! I work with computer minds, not soft, fleshy brains.
On another note, as I'm sure you've noticed by now, sorry about the slow reply, the walls are moving. And, they're tracking us. The core is practically inaccessible at this point. If there is another thing here that's dangerous, and since we can't get to the core, I suggest we get out of here.... Somehow."

"Allocate processing power.... Load Infinity_Smasher.exe." Tsuki apparently wasn't taking any chances as she held out her arm. She was going to use her favorite smashy weapon along with increasing her physical strength and speed once again. A wire frame appeared around her arm, before filling in with the details and colors. It was, simply put, an oversized full-arm gauntlet, except much fancier looking. Think like a mecha arm over her own. She'd now be able to smash things with ease... as long as her energy held out.

As she did this, a thought came across her mind. "I wonder if I could modify the walls, and keep it that way long enough, for us to get out...."

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Hive Number One

A sudden thought occurred to Siphon. "Tsuki, these walls, they are partially organic, that's why they can grow. That means somewhere in that terminal you SHOULD come across some kind of organic growth script. You might be able to hack in and shut it down at least long enough for us to get moving. And we're not leaving without blowing this damn thing sky high, we can't risk letting them repair those engines and flying it away."


For a moment longer he stood there, grinding his teeth before he finally added to the others, "alright, fuck this shit. By now he HAS to know someone is here, and it seems the bots aren't challenging him, which means they are working for him, or he works for them. The rest of you do your best to block him out, I'm going to see if I can.... link with him and track where he is. Try to give us some kind of warning if he heads for us."


He takes an exceedingly deep breath, then slowly exhales, his eyes narrowing as he does so in concentration. When he opened them again, they had taken a dangerously dark tone to them. "I can see him. Fifteen levels above us, looks like some kind of main control room, possibly a command center. He's confident we can't stop him, he's not even bothering to try and link with any of us. Wait, he's inputting something into a console."

He goes quiet for several long minutes before suddenly breaking out into a demonic grin. "Tsuki, look for a program labeled 32B7C322-1 subsection 68, that's what's controlling the walls and shut it down. Your terminal is a backup command center, and you can lock out their command center from there. The access code is.... Prem Vak Shal."

He quickly spelled it our for her, since it seemingly was pronounced differently, though he had a slightly bemused look to his face as he did, as if the words meant something to him. Turning to slightly face Grave and the others he added, "and he was so certain that I couldn't tap into his mind. Won't this be a shocker to him."

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Hive Number One

Grave nodded. "Overconfidence can kill. At least we can suprise him. But I wonder... If we're supposed to eliminate this Hive, won't we have to kill that bastard as well? Planting the charges will take time, and since the bots aren't much of a challenge, he'll be forced to protect the core by himself, unless he has someone tough under his control as well."

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Hive Number One

There was a pause and he added, "he's got more of those terminator things Copper fought coming online now, and they are from a different control system not tied into the hive. I doubt he'll go to the core himself, he's planning on leaving this one. Why, why would you...."

There is a VERY long pause from him, as if he's pushing with everything he has to break past some barrier that went up before he finally adds, "ah bloody fuckery. He's got more than one hive. After he closes this one up so we can't get out, he's planning to let it just go and move on to a different hive. SHIT SHIT SHIT that isn't good. Even worse, these terminator things are bigger and stronger than what Copper fought, they aren't armed with conventional weapons. I only caught a glimpse, but they have some kind of energy blaster attachment, not sure what type."

He paused again for a moment and it suddenly dawned on him. "He's deliberately sacrificing this hive and daring us to blow it up and manage to escape it while he proceeds with his plans elsewhere. He doesn't believe we can set the charges and then fight our way out before they detonate in time to survive it. That punk bastard is calling us out..." If it were even possible for his eyes to take an even darker, more dangerous tone to them, he managed it, and one might wonder if the term, 'looks could kill' would apply if he were in visual sight of the other creature.

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Hive Number One

Grave smiled a very cruel smile. "May I suggest a change of plans, then? We go up, intercept that bastard and turn him into minced meat? Or chase him from Hive to Hive?" Altough it sounded as if Grave was joking, he was serious. He hadn't met that guy before, but Grave was sure that he'd hate him.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Hive Number One

Siphon actually seemed to be considering it for a moment, then shook his head. "He'll be out of here before we can get a path out ourselves, he's already on the move now. It's starting to get hard to track him now, apparently our 'connection' has a limited range. We're going to need more information. At the least, I know the location of two more of his hives."

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Hive Number One

"Do we know how many there are?" Shrike asks incredulously. The thought of having to go through two more of these, if not more, is not enjoyable, to say the least.

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Hive Number One

Grave sighed. "Well, that sucks. Anyway, I guess we should make sure we can get out of here before we blow anything up... I'd like to get out of here alive." The warrior shrugged and looked at Shrike. "We'll see what happens."

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Hive Number One

"I was unable to glean anything more than two from him, but the core may be able to tell us if there are others. I too wish to get out of here alive Grave."

His face suddenly turned a paler color than normal, and his eyes widened. "Crap, I was wrong, he IS trying to connect with someone. He's trying to learn more of us by mentally attacking Tsuki. I can... hold him off.... but not forever. Shrike, I don't suppose you can... extend help.... can you? Someone... warn her he's... near."



About the time he mentioned this, Tsuki would sense something trying to invade her mind, but it was having trouble. She might even be able to sense something else in her head, fighting FOR her against the intruder, but it was weakening. It wouldn't take much brain to realize the intruder was likely the same one Siphon had warned her about, and he was determined, but for the moment failing. If it kept up this way though, eventually the other force would fall, and that couldn't be good.

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Hive Number One

"I don't know how well I can help, but I can definitely try." Shrike says, mentally connecting with Siphon for a moment.

I can't do much defensively, just point me at him and I'll get him from a different angle.

She follows his train of thought to this other entitie's mind. She speaks aloud as she prepares. "Alright, I'm going to hit him sideways with everything I've got, but if he focuses on me, there's not much I can do. So what I will do, is shut down, blank out, give him nothing. Means someone has to carry me for a bit, but I'm light." She smiles, then sits down cross-legged and focuses on the task at hand. She pulls down all her defenses, throwing everything she has at the other's mind, attack every way and every angle she can concieve as fast as she can.