TP forums: Aftermath

[Shrike7]

Re: TP forums: Aftermath

Shrike responds simply.

Take your time, it's nothing life-threatening, just make sure someone comes along that can turn their nose off, ye gods the stench!

She doesn't elaborate on what she means, but you get the impression that it'll be fairly obvious when you arrive.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: TP forums: Aftermath

I think my nostrils are still singed from the blast. On my way.


He nods to Copper. "I'll be fine, just going to see what she needs. Just watch yourselves, those bastards were sneaky."



He finally makes it into the area Shrike was in, pausing as he comes into view of her. "OK, what's up.... wow, this place is pretty FUBAR huh?"

 

[Shrike7]

Re: TP forums: Aftermath

"Yeah, this used to be my friend's place, that big thing overr there is his hanger." She says, pointing to the large observatory-like building. "Looks like it got hit by one of those massive building-sized blasts from a hive ship, completely welded the thing airtight. I cut myself a door to try and and get in, but the smell..." She says, gagging a little again. "I can't even get close, but I need to find out if it's what I think it is. Are you sure you're nose is that out of comission?" She asks. You can make out the black square against the shined metal from here, but it's completely dark inside.

 

[Copper]

Re: TP forums: Aftermath

"Tch. She called me, too, you know. And since I don't have to breathe, except to talk, means I don't have to smell." She trails along behind the other man. "Boss, holler if you run into more of these fuglies, okay? We'll be there, lickety-split."

Listening to Shrike, she gives the other woman a sympathetic look. "Just tell me what I should look for. I'll do what I can."

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: TP forums: Aftermath

Siphon stopped for a moment. "Wait, those blasts don't generate heat like that to weld something shut. They obliterate and explode. There's no way a blast from a hive could have generated that much heat to weld it shut, not without it having been so intense that this area would still be on fire or very uncomfortable to be in heat wise. No, something else did that, likely not ship bound either. What though I have no idea. And yeah, nose doesn't seem to be working so well, can barely smell anything right now, which I will take to be a good thing. Copper... if you insist on going."

He chuckles slightly, knowing she probably had a better sense of sight in the darkness than he did, especially right now.

 

[Copper]

Re: TP forums: Aftermath

"Well, you two mentalists just keep inside my head and I won't have to worry about anything, smell or otherwise." She grins and slides her sunglasses off her, eyes taking on a reddish glow. "Time to see what I can see. If there's anything, or anyone, special I should look for, Shrike, just let me know."

That being said, she heads for the makeshift door, lingering long enough to glance around inside for any immediate threats, and then begins quietly picking her way through the building, relaying back to the other two what she sees.

 

[Caulder]

Re: TP forums: Aftermath

Burrito shrugs off the bits and pieces of dirt from the explosion, then heads towards where Shrike and the others were. He would raise his right hand to indicate he was there, then take one whiff and gag before pressing the center of the bridge of his nose "God damn. What crawled in there and died?" he asks, his index fingers pinching his nose closed for a second "Thank god I lost my nose a while back. Lets me turn the damn thing off whenever I want."

 

[Shrike7]

Re: TP forums: Aftermath

"I don't really know what did it, that was just my best guess. And look around the base of it-the ground has been glassed from the heat, it probably just incinerated everything nearby. The only thing I've seen that was big enough to hit an area that wide at once was one of those blasts, past that I have no idea. I do know that my friend made stuff to last, if he ever expected them to come under attack." Shrike says to Siphon as Copper heads towards the opening. Burrito arrives and makes his comment, to which Shrike just glares at him for a moment, before turning back to the building itself.

Inside the building, Copper would find the rather thick slab that used to be the door, cut at an angle on every side to make sure it fell inwards. There are also the half melted remains of between three and five adbots, possibly killed by small weapons fire, though it was hard to tell.

The entire structure seemed to be one large room, stretching all the way to the ceiling, which has various half-melted gears and burst hydraulics attached to it, probably to let the entire roof open up. There's crates and crates of equipment and tools everywhere, as well as a large platform about ten feet high in the center.

Try up there, it would be the landing platform. Shrike says to Copper mentally.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: TP forums: Aftermath

"Agreed, an area this large of effect SHOULD have been done by a Hive, but I know the weapons don't generate that much.... unless...."

He trails off, pulling back out his mini scanner, checking his previous readings. "Ah shit. Remember I said the energy readings were off the chart earlier? We both may have been right Shrike. NORMALLY the Hive weaponry wouldn't generate enough heat to do this, but.... with the levels I picked up... it may have been enough. This means whatever Hive hit them, it was much much more potent and their weapons were much stronger and harder hitting."

Anticipating the question he adds to Burrito, "I'm not sure by how much more. At least ten times stronger than what we got hit with as far as destructive power goes."

 

[Copper]

Re: TP forums: Aftermath

Roger that. Let's just see if I can't find some stairs or a ladder or if I have to do this the vampy way. There's no...automated defenses I should be worried about in here, should I?

She prowls around until she either finds a method of scaling up there or resorts to turning into a crow and flying up.

Okay, I'm up. Now where? She gives a mental stock of what she sees.

 

[Shrike7]

Re: TP forums: Aftermath

Honestly, I have no idea if there are any defenses in there, but he's not the sort to use any. Shrike says as Copper finds a ladder up to the platform. Its a completely flat plain, with a fighter-class ship resting on it at an awkward angle, obviously not how it's supposed to be sitting. On the ground beside it is a human body, lying in a half-congealed puddle of juices. Upon slightly closer inspection, a soiled brown jacket could clearly be made out from the mess.

Gods...
"Gods..."

Outside, the relative silence is peirced by the sounds of Shrike violently spewing the contents of her stomach over the side of the roof she was sitting on, with practically no warning.

 

[Copper]

Re: TP forums: Aftermath

If this is him, sweetie, I'm sorry. If it's at all possible, Copper's mental tone is a little gentler. Looks like he was trying to head out and help when they hit him.

She walks over, doing her best to block Shrike out for the moment, not that it's all that difficult, her being...distracted...and all, and gently turns the body over so he's on his back, closing his eyes if need be.

Looking around for signs of any more deceased, or clues to what might have done this, she doesn't pick contact with Shrike back up until the other woman initiates it.

 

[Shrike7]

Re: TP forums: Aftermath

The body is... Cooked is the best way to describe it. Not scorched, blackened, or even burnt in any way, just, cooked. Rolling the body over lets Copper discover that it has split open along the stomach, spilling out the remains of burst organs out onto the landing pad, themselves heated until they are almost a solid mass. the eyeballs have burst as well, so the eyelids close easily enough. Handling the body also lets her feel how there seems to be an extra layer of squishy just under the skin, likely all the blood and pus from burst vessels underneath. There's also an odd set of what looks like dog tags hanging from the neck, made of some black metal that is cool to the touch and shaped like some kind of bird.

 

[Copper]

Re: TP forums: Aftermath

Still trying to keep Shrike blocked out. Yeah, she doesn't need to see this. She rather carefully removes the tags, tucking them into an interior pocket of her jacket for the time being. Hope you don't mind, friend. She makes a cross-sign above him and mouths a prayer before slipping back down the ladder and heading back out.

"You know," she finally states out loud, "I really don't want to see what can hit this place hard enough to turn a hangar into an oven." She pulls out the tag and walks over to Shrike.

"Thought you might want this."

 

[Shrike7]

Re: TP forums: Aftermath

Shrike was starting to look mostly recovered by the time Copper came back. "Thanks." She says, taking the tags and putting them away. "They're just lucky they caught him before he was airborne, if he had gotten to his ship they couldn't have touched... His ship!" She exclaims, running back through her memories of what Copper had seen.

"Shit, it normally floats, even when it's off, they probably cooked every piece of electronics in there. Hey Burrito." She says, turning to the man. "Does your forum have the capability to repair something like that? Its small, only a single person to fly it, but it's pretty advanced. Could we get something over here to bring it back with us?"

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: TP forums: Aftermath

Siphon sort of vanished when Shrike mentioned repairing the ship. He was down in the hangar before any of them realized he was missing, taking stock and examining the ship.

 

[Shrike7]

Re: TP forums: Aftermath

((Will post a pic if I remember when I get home, so no real description as of yet. Can't really find the words to do it justice, except that it looks simple and kind of blocky, but still incredibly graceful.))

The ship was still there, tilted on it's side as before. The cokpit hatch was closed, but was easy enough to open with the power down.

Outside, Shrike realized he had disappeared and sent out a mental feeler, finding him exactly where she expected him to be. She reached out carefully, staying well away from his senses.

How is it?

Inside the cockpit, everything looked dead, with the exception of what appeared to be the main screen, right in the center of the console. It was lit up, but there was nothing but a blinking cursor in the top left corner. Most of the equipment seemed to weater the heat fairly well, though anything not made of metal has melted somewhat. There's a keyboard on a swivel shelf hidden off on the left side. The keys are partially melted, but hitting them still produces the letters on the screen.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: TP forums: Aftermath

Mostly dead but remarkably intact considering. Wait, one of the computers still works.

He began inputting several wider used coding lines in an attempt to bring up a main root directory.

 

[Shrike7]

Re: TP forums: Aftermath

That's the main console, he must have it shielded somehow. Shrike says, waiting to hear what comes of it.

Siphon puts the commands in one by one, but there's no response after any of them. Finally, a few seconds after the last command goes in, the sceen goes blank again for a moment, then a message appears:
.
.
.
You want the root? What's the password?

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: TP forums: Aftermath

Don't suppose his passwords would be as simple as PLEASE would they?

He was half tempted to hack his way into it, but he somehow suspected that would be easier said than done in this case.