The Dividing Line - Station

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: The Dividing Line - Station

As the first bug came into view, it was likely met with a blast from Draven's rifle, the Ingrali instinctively reacting and firing a shot. Assuming it was downed and out, he'd target the next available target with his weapon, or failing that and it being too close, it would be met with his meaty fist.

 

[Chibichibi]

Re: The Dividing Line - Station

Maria's voice buzzed in Fletch's ear again, "The bodies are being controlled by something. Some kind of one of those spore things. Caitlin wants to capture it and study it. Thinks its new. Meera's gonna freeze it and then we're gonna get it aboard the Concordance. I'm alright now and things look good out here. Thanks for earlier." she sounded as if she was smiling on the other end.

 

[Rule 34]

Re: The Dividing Line - Station

"Kinda busy here," Fletch murmured into the mic as he unsheathed the massive wrench on his back. "But you're welcome... Oh hell! ROACHES! LOOK OUT!" Cutting the mic feed, Fletch swung the wrench upward, just past Kars - and squashed something against the roof of the maintenance tunnel with the sound of splintering carapace. The small merc would soon see droplets of blood starting to float by in the dim light of his flashlight before suddenly a clawed hand dropped into view.

More motion sensors answered the Nnyarthall's death. "Well, shit. MOVE!" He turned and gave Hiram a push to get the Xyr moving, getting a glare and a bleat from underneath the skull mask in return. Turning off his mag boots, the mercenary started bounding down the corridor, Fletch stomping after him as fast as his suit would let him.
---
Forester failed to notice a bug sneaking up on her. The Nnyarthall stared down at her for a long moment as she fired at its comrades. Slowly it raised its weapon - and was suddenly engulfed in a bright white flame. "Not good commander, BEST COMMANDER," Nadia coolly replied as the burning Nnyarthall frantically flayed its arms and failed at extinguishing the burning magnesium. Eventually, it collapsed.
Meanwhile, the bugs converged on Draven, clearly seeing him as the biggest threat. While the first and even the second bug fell before his blaster rifle, more converged on him, his shield flaring up at the shots from their rifles and depleting rapidly. Nadia hissed and cocked her shotgun, loading up another magnesium round, the last one being expelled and floating away from where she stood.
---
Repeatedly being stunlocked did little to phase the Nnyarthall. It did, however, give Vlado a chance to regain his composure after he stumbled back as the bug dropped right in front of him. Before the bug before him could move again, it received a solid steel bolt through the skull. Without gravity and without air resistance, the crossbow unfolded its full lethality. "They will not stop," he said towards the Klarr. "Kill them and be done with it," the doctor added and readied another bolt, taking aim at the second Nnyarthall.

Krell, meanwhile, found himself faced with an especially nimble opponent. As his hand dropped and raised the revolver, the bug went low and pounced at him, ramming the rifle's barrel into the Pan Kor's front and pulling the trigger. The only thing that saved Krell from having a cone stamped out of his gut was both his shield and his massive armor.
Something pounced him from behind without regard for its companion, his unexpected movement knocking the Breacher's barrel away from his form. Something started to hammer into his back, quickly picking up speed.

 

[Chibichibi]

Re: The Dividing Line - Station

Deelin an Taavan nodded. "Try the new setting?"

"You bet your ass. No time like the present to see if these mods worked."

A small click and the twisting of a knob later and the bugs getting shot at were no longer freezing in place. The weapons did nearly the same as they had before, except instead of a stasis bubble, the Mantises were enveloped in a bubble of heat.

Here was another reason why they'd left their home world to become mercenaries. Deelin hoped the Terrans wouldn't think less of them, while Taavan worried for Meera's reaction.

(if it aint allowed, lemme know an I'll figure something else to poast)

 

[Unknown Squid]

Re: The Dividing Line - Station

Kars frowns deeply, reflexively twisting away from both the wrench and ceiling, his pulse laser pistol drawn in a flash and seeking an aggressor. Sure enough though, the crunch of the roach against the maintenance tunnel confirmed things. 'Shit! How long had that been there!?' he curses mentally. Forgetting to look "up" was a dirt lovers mistake, not one he would make. He could only assume it had silently scurried or swooped in, inbetween checks whilst his back had been turned.

With the others bursting to get moving Kars follows suit, kicking hard off from a surface and intermittently firing his jets to keep up with whatever pace the others set. Hugging the railgun under one arm and holding the pistol out in the other, the extra weight certainly didn't help his balance in this tight space, but he knew how to counteract it plenty well enough to fly at this speed. Picking the right guns for an uncertain job was always one of the hardest and most frustrating parts of his merc work. So many 'If only I had the ____ gun...' moments.

Still, in a zero-g race between Roaches and a Hit Suit...

Kars kept snapping his view back and forth along the tunnel, pistol at the ready to burn a searing hole through anything that rushed up from behind or dared to come crawling out from any alcoves. "Don't go running us into some trap now. Counting on you back here."

 

[Caulder]

Re: The Dividing Line - Station

Krell roars loudly, forcing himself up in an attempt to pin whatever was attacking him to the wall or ceiling of the crawlspace, trying to slam the creature against anything solid behind him as he tried to get another shot off on the bug in front of him. The entire time, his comm was left open, his grunts and roars sounding through the system to anyone who was tuned in.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: The Dividing Line - Station

Growling, Draven half slung the rifle back over his shoulder with one arm, using the other to unclip and sight the pistol he had with him, quickly unloading about four blasts into the closest bug, right into it's chest and face as quickly as he could. This done, he started targeting the rest of them one at a time, trying to whittle their numbers down or at least force them to back off. While not as powerful as the rifle, the pistol gave him that extra maneuvering room and a sort of ace in the hole, which he was hoping would help out. If not, things might get very interesting in ways he really did not want them to right now.

 

[Rule 34]

Re: The Dividing Line - Station

"I'm trying here," Fletch growled in response to Kars as he kept an eye on the map projection while running down the corridor. "There! There's a blast door up ahead. We can close it manually. This'll hold them off long enough for us to reach the reactor. HIRAM," he called out. "To the left, into that chamber. Give us covering fire." The Xyr laughed out. "I though you'd never ask." Throwing himself to the left and spinning around in mid air, Hiram pointed his gun towards the entrance as Fletch barreled through it, forcing his HIT suit to turn on a dime and grabbing one massive handle of the blast door, leaving the other side to Kars. "Manually closing it is gonna be a bitch, use your jetpack," he grunted as he started to push the massive steel plate into place.
---
Krell could feel a nasty crack as he slammed his entire weight against a wall, the Roach on his back being forcefully squashed by his bulk. This time, his revolver shot struck true, the massive caliber easily outmatching the bug's weaker shields. With a spray of blood, the bug's grav suit ceased functioning, leaving the Nnyarthall floating away from the Pan Kor. Still, he had to get back to his group.

The heat bubbles had a horrific effect on the Nnyarthall once it overwhelmed their shields. Screeching and flaying, the bugs were pressure cooked inside their suits. It would have been an agonizing death... if not for Vlado. Seeing their suffering, the Garik once more reached into this coat's sleeves and produced a pair of slender daggers, looking more like rapiers than swords. With a precision too great to not be practiced, Vlado stepped up to a Nnyarthall and rammed the blade forward with all his strength. The tip of the dagger pierced through their armor with ease and drove straight into their hearts, killing them instantly. His mask hiding his expression, he withdrew the blade and walked over to the next bug.
---
A sudden gust of white flame cut a swath into the converging bugs, stopping just short of Draven. Really, it was their own fault to clump together like this when there was a shotgun user around, even if said shotgun user was invisible. The combined efforts of Draven and Forester made short work of the remaining bugs. "Enough delay." Nadia uncloaked and pointed at Talen. "Get down there and help the android, then make your way to the Command Center." She tossed him a PDA with the coordinates of their target. "Forester, there's a door up ahead that has locked. Get us through it. Draven, covering fire." Nadia pointed down a corridor. True to her word, at the end of it was a steel door that remained closed - a malfunction perhaps, or a security protocol.

 

[Chibichibi]

Re: The Dividing Line - Station

The Klarr were horrified by the modifications to their weapons and immediately switched them off as soon as the threats had been neutralized. Taavan gagged behind his mask, thankful they couldn't smell the creatures and they both shoved the guns back into their holsters, pulling out a pair of "old fashioned" pistols.

"Never again," Taavan said. "I am never using that setting again."

"Agreed. Even if you did, I wouldn't let you. Why in the deepest parts of Grnnk did that engineer not tell us what it would do?"

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: The Dividing Line - Station

Curtly nodding, Draven took up a defensive firing position nearby enough to move when needed. Anything that wasn't friendly that came into visual range would be met with blaster rifle fire, or pistol fire if it got too close.

 

[Unknown Squid]

Re: The Dividing Line - Station

Nimbly catching the door and swinging round from his momentum, Kars lands on the rear side of the door and goes for the handle. "Well gee, wish I thought of th-" Kars begins, soon being cut off by the roar of his own jetpack going at full blast being transmitted through his coms. The small spacer having carefully wedged and locked his arms and body against the large door in order to pull of the trick. When doing such a thing, he had to be very careful to brace himself properly and solidly, otherwise the force of the jetpack could easily crush him or break his bones if poorly controlled.

 

[Caulder]

Re: The Dividing Line - Station

Krell shrugs his left shoulder, holstering his revolver and looking up through the hole he had fell through. "Hey! Anyone still alive up there?" he calls out over his comms, squatting down and picking up his grenade launcher and checking it to make sure it hadn't been damaged in the melee, before deactivating his gravity boots and pushing up out of the hole, casting his gaze about as he did so, looking for any more bugs to deal with. "This's Krell, comin' out of the hole in the floor. Check fire." he says as he begins to float out of the hole where he had been standing just moments before everything went to hell.

 

[tomaito89]

Re: The Dividing Line - Station

Reno's victory was short-lived. The hand in the air was the last to disappear into the hole suddenly created by a blast of red light that cut clear through the floor material and dropped the android down a level. She was not as lucky as simply falling into a crawlspace, however - she got dropped an entire floor. As she looked up, she found herself staring at a Mantis. With a growl, the massive green organic suit raised its arms - and parts of the material covering its forearms snapped up and forward, turning into its signature jagged blades.

Without missing a beat, Reno leveled her SMG at the beast and unloaded a full magazine into its chest. The creature let out a strange, pained noise while slashing wildly at her. Most of the damage was mitigated by her personal shield, but the attack was still strong enough to rip tears in her bodysuit. "Eep!" Reno let out a rather girlish squeal as the Mantis died on top of her.

A sudden gust of white flame cut a swath into the converging bugs, stopping just short of Draven. Really, it was their own fault to clump together like this when there was a shotgun user around, even if said shotgun user was invisible. The combined efforts of Draven and Forester made short work of the remaining bugs. "Enough delay." Nadia uncloaked and pointed at Talen. "Get down there and help the android, then make your way to the Command Center." She tossed him a PDA with the coordinates of their target.

Talen caught the PDA and with the same motion tossed it back at her. "No need for this, I've already got a map of the station." Moving towards the edge of the hole Reno fell through, Talen shouted over his shoulder, "We'll meet up with you when we can, see you at the ComCen." After hitting the ground, Talen hefted the Mantis corpse of of Reno with his "normal" arm. She was covered in slime and made a "grossed-out" face.

"Ugh. This is disgusting!" She wiped some of the slime off of her face, flinging it to the ground with a "splat." As soon as she was on her feet again, Talen started walking away. "Green looks good on you; brings out your eyes." he said while chuckling. Reno blew him a raspberry as she followed close behind him. This time, she was more alert, and wouldn't be caught off guard so easily.

 

[Aust_Nailo]

Re: The Dividing Line - Station

Not only did she get snippy with her commander, Annika decided to get lazy too, almost getting offed by one of these creatures. Thankfully, Nadia made quick work of it and made her job at least a little easier. Damnit, she wasn't use to all this combat! She was suppose to fix things, not kill them! Well, at least she had an order. Blast the door and get them moving forward. Simple enough. Checking her corners and taking a deep breath, Annika moved to the door "Come on Draven. Lets get the lead out!" Reaching the doors control panel, she pried the device off the wall to get to the wires underneath replacing her hand with a set of clippers and took a light in her other hands. All she needed to do was clip the right set of wires and the door would open and stay open at least until someone fixes it...most likely her

 

[Rule 34]

Re: The Dividing Line - Station

After staring at the wiring of the door panel for a moment, Forester remembered that the station did not have any electricity. She would have to find another way of opening the door. Luckily, Nadia was too focused on the hallway to notice her momentary slip-up.

All remained quiet for the moment. Their sensors could pick up several life signals, but none of them moving towards them. Something else seems to have drawn their attention.
---
As Talen and Reno pushed forward, they found an open door leading into a stairway. The way up may reunite them with the rest of the Command Group. Below them, they could register several life signals - Nnyarthall, in all probability. It seems the bugs had bunkered down below them. Strangely enough, Talen's map did not bring up anything about the floor below them - as if somebody had blacked out this part of the map.
---
"The Nnyarthall would have tortured you to death on capture to get all information out of you," Vlado remarked in a casual tone as he finished off the last twitching bug. "You could not expect the mercy of a monomolecular blade to the heart. That being said, I agree in your assessment. You should have a talk with that engineer," the medic suggested as he wiped off his daggers and made them disappear underneath his sleeves again, just as Krell slowly floated out of the hole. Vlado walked over in his usual stilted manner and pulled the Pan Kor the rest of the way up - his mag boots helping to achieve the otherwise impossible. He walked around the Pan Kor for a moment and stopped behind him. "Roach marks on your armor," he pointed out. "They can drill through almost any material, given enough time."

It seemed this moment of calm was all the downtime the group would get. Once more their sensors beeped, alerting them to another group of bugs heading towards their location. It seemed their work had only just begun.
---
Hiram bleated over the comm channel and planted his feet more firmly into the ground. There was no spin-up to his gun, no dramatic charge. The heavy weapon just started blasting .50 cal bullets out of all three barrels at the same time, piping hot shells being expelled all over the place and muzzle flash illuminating the entire room. Neither Fletch nor Kars could see what the Xyr was firing at, and Fletch didn't particularly care either. The goatling didn't release the trigger until the door was almost closed, finally shutting and locking mechanically. "Da-a-amn, there are a LOT of roaches in the tunnels," he bleated. In response, Fletch snorted. "Right. This door will hold them off for a while. Down that way," he said while pointing at a bulkhead in the floor of the chamber. "It's a long, straight cooling tunnel that should take us straight to the reactor..." He paused for a moment before a grin spread over his face. "Alright, open it up. I'll give you a boost, then follow behind you."

 

[Unknown Squid]

Re: The Dividing Line - Station

Swatting away a drifting bullet casing, Kars lets go of his grip on the door and stands upon it, rolling his shoulders a few times to wind off the strain the jetpack had put on him. It was a rather heavy use of his fuel, but luckily he had brought along a spare fuel rod.

Looking at the bulkhead door that Fletch indicated, Kars would hop over to open it up, or just let the cannon goat handle it if it looked like he was going to. "Oh sure, send the small guy first huh?" He remarks sarcastically, grabbing his floating Railgun and checking the tunnel. He was rather dubious about the sugestion of being lobbed down an unexplored tunnel by some mech'd up Human, but it wasn't as if he couldn't adjust or abort his flight if he saw something he didn't like down there. "Fine, whatever. You'd better be a good throw." He says getting ready, and intending to aim his railgun forwards as a kind of central balance point. Almost like a dart.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: The Dividing Line - Station

((Assuming that everything is on an open channel with the rest of the team, if not I'll edit))


Draven frowned as he heard mention of the bugs in the tunnels, and the fact it was still quiet around here didn't set well with him. They were up to something, he could feel it, but he didn't know what.

"How much longer with that door? Something isn't right."

 

[Aust_Nailo]

Re: The Dividing Line - Station

"I'm working on it damnit! My original plan didn't work and I need to improvise. Fuck it, I'm going to blow the door. One second."Digging into her supplies, she removed a small amount of what looked to be clay from her various tools. She would place a tiny bit of the clay on key points of the door, attaching a small timer to each one. Stepping away, she would sync up the timers and activate them at the same time. "Charges set. Detonating in 5...4...3...2...." A bang came from the door, knocking it loose enough for her to kick it down with a solid boot. "Doors open! Lets move! Lets move!"

 

[tomaito89]

Re: The Dividing Line - Station

"Hey, Reno. Are your maps showing any details on the floor below us?"

"Negative. All I can tell is that there seems to be a swarm of hostiles there. Weird. Should we check it out?"

"No, let's just move forward. The faster we get control of the station, the smoother this mission will go." Talen began walking towards the stairway, weapons at the ready.

"Aye, aye." Reno fell in behind him, facing backwards. They moved at a swift and steady pace, deciding to leave the mysterious floor for another time.

 

[Caulder]

Re: The Dividing Line - Station

Krell growls as he turns his mag boots back on, planting himself on the floor tilting his head with a crack of his neck. "Well. Unless it's an immediate problem, let's get back to work. I doubt they'll get very far through this armor." he says, smirking and turning the way they had already been going, flicking a switch on his grenade launcher, the systems within working and swapping out his ammunition. "They better have shields. If they don't, they're gonna cook in their shells. Let's move. And mark down that hole for when we've driven the bastards out." he says, stomping off down the hallway and avoiding the large hole in the floor.