| Log Title |
| Summary: | Operation Silent Mastiff. Marines, Engineering, and Deck execute a precise entry into the foundry in search of intelligence. What they find is something they never expected. |
| Date: | 05 Feb 2042 AE |
| Related Logs: | Far too many to list. |
| Players: |
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| Space. |
|---|
| The final frontier. Setpose below. |
| Post-Holocaust Day: #344 |
"Danger," sings a tinny male voice over the com. "You have now crossed into the restricted area. This area is under the jurisdiction of the armed forces of the Confederation of Leonis and Tauron. Turn back, say again, turn back." But though the soldiers inside the six Raptors now drifting through the supposedly cleared minefield can hear the warning as clear as day, none of the pilots so much as blink at the news. At this point, there's actually nothing they can do if their calculations were wrong and their path takes them not toward the Cylon manufacturing facility looming large in the distance but a cluster of yet-unexploded mines. Running silent and dark except for the low-tech floodlight held in the lap of each ECO, the Raptors float like bulky brown tumbleweeds across this debris-ridden sector of space.
"Coming up on our target vent now," Captain Dhaval reports, his thin voice nasal. "Angle of approach is — good. Dino, verify?"
"Yeah. Thirty-point-five. We're within the safe zone — for now." The ECO shakes her head as she slams the back of a palm against her light, trying to turn it on. "Frak, Pony. The last time I looked at signal code was — shit, thirty-four, thirty five?"
"So for all we know the other bears — "
"Could be telling you what they had for lunch, yeah. Isn't that a comforting thought." Click-click goes the light, toggling the blinker while behind her the squids and snipes saddle up in EVA suits as bulky as they are unflattering. And then, without a word, the hatch pops open, the members of each stick giving the thumbs-up before jumping off onto a ground of polished chrome.
Vandenberg spends 1 luck points on For Demo. Dice Hate Me..
<FS3> Vandenberg rolls Demolitions: Good Success.
<FS3> Sofia rolls Repair: Good Success.
<FS3> Cilusia rolls Repair: Terrible Failure.
Nervous. Nervous. Sofia listens to the com, and stays huddled in her Raptor. She takes a deep breath. She's in the snipe squad, by the squids. Snipes like squids. They have nice hats, you see. It's an amusing thought to latch onto, while avoiding the horrors of a slight phobia without a reason she can recall. Poor Sofia's suit is a remarkable exercise in comedy. too much squished in here, not enough there. But it *fits* functionally and so it goes. She is helping use the repurposed viper tool to drill away at that hinge. She has to remind herself to breathe every so often, but her work gets one quietly, steadily.
First time out in space working on those mines, Cilusia might've gotten a bit lucky. This time, no such luck holds. It's pretty evident that Cilusia's a repurposed deckie as well; the big honking repurposed tools are big and awkward and she doesn't quite have as good a grip on it - or maybe she's just not holding it the right way, or something - or maybe it takes a bad spin in the facility's skin and torques strange. Whatever the cause, there's a curse over the coms, and then the tool goes drifting off into space, spinning and spinning forever.
Sofia spends 1 luck points on Fixing the Deckie..
<FS3> Sofia rolls Repair: Good Success.
"…" Sofia goes briefly cross-eyed seeing Cilusia's misfortune. "Um. Here." She quietly moves over. Her slender hands seem to have a good grip on things. She smiles somewhat sympathetically at Cilusia, before grunting and crouching to take care of the task. Her own tool stays steady. She seems to be in a quiet zone, trying to ignore the possibility of losing her own tool, or those dread torches. She works quickly though.
The explosives are a complicated set of rigs that are moved into position over the hinges and locking mechanism. Vandenberg directs the assembly and preperation with some tried patience though the intensity of it all is still present behind her words. Less bark, more growl from Dog Actual. All told, it takes quite a few minutes to get all of the explosive rigs around the door and in their proper places. Once installed she moves around with small radio detonators. "Arming explosives. All personnel stand clear of the blast zone." Each detonator is placed into a marked location on the rigs with considerable care, a rocker switch and green light indicating that they are ready to go. The Marine Lieutenant makes her way back over to a place of cover against flying debris. The larger breaching charge, a four-foot diameter cylinder with a conical indentation in the center, floats next to her in wait for its use right after this blast. "Ready?" Look left. "Ready?" Look right. All Marines and snipes report ready with thumbs up. She flicks the safety cap off the detonator in her right hand to expose a Big Red Button. "Charges armed. Safety off. Marines?" Anyone listening can hear the big-ass smile in her voice. "Let's misbehave. Firing in three, two, one…" She slams the red button against her left palm.
Soon enough the first stage of the operation is complete, though at Cilusia's little accident more than a few of the Marines — Areion and Cerberus alike — can't help but burst out laughing at the absurdity of it all. But once the explosives make their appearance, the mockery abruptly ceases. Evidently the threat of shit blowing up is enough to suck the levity out of anything. Seconds pass like minutes; minutes, like hours — and then —
A two-thousand-pound bomb is a mighty thing. But wedged into the brutal lines drilled into the hull by the repurposed Viper manufacturing tools towed behind the last Raptor to arrive, the force of its impact seems magnified tenfold. Though orders are to avert eyes, not a few Marines open them to see what these makeshift charges — "Zeus's Dick," as their affectionate nickname goes — can do.
Let's just say this: no wonder Hera wanted to keep her man to herself.
Though the explosion doesn't come with the expected sound and fury, this being space and all, the force with which debris flies backwards from this bomb (and the two others in the middle and starboard hinge) stands in powerful testament to just what sort of hell the Colonials have unleashed. And when those great yawning doors fly off their frames, even the gleaming chrome machines making up a sickly red assembly line seem to recoil in surprise.
Until, with terrible precision, they're moving as one to deal with the intruders, drills and cranes swinging around as if powered by a single mind. And in the manufacturing queue two half-completed Raiders — their hulls half-finished, their slimy organic "brains" half-exposed — begin to power up their guns, swiveling on the two elevated platforms at the now-opened end of a long, long corridor now bristling with suddenly hostile tools…
Everyone knows the plan, it's been drilled and drilled and drilled into their brains so not a second thought will be given when it comes to the actual day. Well that day is here and now, and as the hatch is blown there is no hesitation from the Marine XO as he spills out with his team into the breach the engineers and the explosives have provided. Everyone's been assigned to their team, and so he only needs to make hand gestures to the ones that are assigned to follow him. 'Go. Go. Go.' He motions with his hands. No time to waste. Heavy weapons are to clear the way first.
Stavrian's boots slam ground as he hurries into place with his team — centrally located where he can most easily sprint to a injured soldier around him. Rifle in hand to help with the initial assault, it's quite possible he may only get off one or two shots before he's needed elsewhere, but any little bit may help. Half of what he's hearing is the shouting and footfall, half is his own heartbeat pounding in his ears as the surge of Marines heads forward into the breach, and he ultimately among them.
Constin had been hauling the oversized, heated sack that contains the Karlstov G48 along through space, among the first to set magnetized boots to plating inside the facility, the recoilless rifle already prepped for firing as he reports woodenly, "Multiple hostiles, clear my back-" he adds a moment before firing- the backblast of a Karlstov in a vaccuum will spoil your whole day.
Vandenberg already has her Karlstov up and loaded when they get into the facility. "EML mines reaaaady!" she calls over the comms. But at seeing the factory turning to face them, Vandenberg lifts the Karlstov. "Constin! Raiders! Take 'em out!" She drops to a knee in the suit and flicks the safety off. "Clear backblast!" She fires an instant later.
Explosives. Snipes know what they do. Sofia will duly avert her eyes and move where she's told to let the Marines play. She looks sympathetic at the laughing, but says nothing. She does turn though, once the thing goes off. Wait, what? It's like something out of one of her horrible nightmares or a bad sci fi movie. Half completed Raiders born ready to fight. Those drills, those - BRAINS. She feels a little ill in the depths of her stomach. She looks to Constin, and quietly scoots to the side - more reflex, but anywhere to the *side* is better right? Normally she'd be happily barreling forward but - her weapon would do no good, nor would hurling a tool. So she ducks out of the way to let the marines do their thing. Silence is like thunder, but there's no thunder or sound in space. Just … things. On seeing Stavrian though, she quietly follows his lead.
Hurrying in after the others, Samuel looks around for a few moments. "This must be my dad's biggest nightmares," he mutters to himself, before he takes aim for one of those drills. So, Drill. This is not a drill. Or something like that.
Richards had been fairly quiet up to this point but once the enemy appears that calm is shattered. Frowning, he blinks in surprise upon seeing what their targets are going to be but that doesn't stop him from taking to a knee, taking aim at a crane, and firing.
<COMBAT> Mathers will attack Crane2 this turn.
<COMBAT> Cilusia has changed weapons to rifle_ap.
<COMBAT> Samuel attacks Drill2 with Rifle AP - Light wound to Right Hand.
<COMBAT> Vandenberg uses a Missile He!
<COMBAT>
<COMBAT> EXPLOSION! Right Next To Raider1 - Critical wound to Head.
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Raider1 - Serious wound to Chest.
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Raider1 - Moderate wound to Left Leg.
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Raider1 - Serious wound to Left Leg.
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Raider1 - Critical wound to Abdomen.
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Raider1 - Critical wound to Head.
<COMBAT> Richards attacks Crane1 with Rifle AP - Moderate wound to Neck.
<COMBAT> Crane2 attacks Mathers with Club - Light wound to Chest.
<COMBAT> Stavrian attacks Crane1 with Rifle AP but MISSES!
<COMBAT> Raider1 passes.
<COMBAT> Mathers attacks Crane2 with Rifle Ap but MISSES!
<COMBAT> Drill2 attacks Stavrian with Knife - ARMOR on Chest stops the attack!
<COMBAT> Drill1 attacks Sofia with Knife - ARMOR on Chest stops the attack!
<COMBAT> Crane1 attacks Vandenberg with Club - ARMOR on Chest stops the attack!
<COMBAT> Constin uses a Missile He!
<COMBAT>
<COMBAT> EXPLOSION! Right Next To Raider2 - Critical wound to Head.
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Raider2 - Critical wound to Right Arm.
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Raider2 - Serious wound to Left Arm.
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Raider2 - Critical wound to Head.
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Raider2 - Moderate wound to Left Hand.
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Raider2 - Serious wound to Right Arm.
<COMBAT> Sofia attacks Crane1 with Rifle AP - Light wound to Chest.
<COMBAT> Raider2 passes.
<OOC> Stavrian says, "Dayum"
<COMBAT> Cilusia passes.
<COMBAT> Polaris has started a new turn. Pose and choose your action.
<COMBAT> Raider1 has been KO'd!
Running down the production line in magnetic boots is kind of like participating in some strange fraternity initiation ritual back in college — just replace jeering bros and exploding bottles of mustard and ketchup with silent whirring saws and diamond-tipped drillbits. The Marines' automatic weapons spit out round after round but without the familiar rat-tat-tat to accompany them; muttered curses filter through the coms as one of the other team's weapons succumb to the cold. But the point is soon rendered moot as a crane still bathed in slowly congealing blood — if that really is blood — slams into the gut of that unfortunate Marine, smashing the gun out of her hand.
Meanwhile, the gunners do their job with aplomb, their exploding shells careening through space to lodge in the glowing red eyeslits of the two now-active Raiders. One evaporates in a shower of flesh, goop, and metal; the other, somehow, remains stable, its guns firing mindlessly in the throes of death. And from the darkness there suddenly looms the distinctive silhouette of a Heavy Raider flying upside-down, its turret trained directly at the incoming Marines.
Playtime, it appears, is over.
Constin It's the lack of sound that's most curious to Constin. The feeling of firing off the Karlstov is as it should be, the flash of light- the streaking missile, and the explosion. "We got a Heavy!" Dog Platoon's former Drill Sergeant goes through the motions he'd drilled into recruits repeatedly- reloading the Karl with a second shell, and relying on the squad to keep the enemy off of him.
Heavy bodyarmor does come in awfully handy. Stavrian feels something slam into his chest that knocks him slightly off balance, boot toe dug against the metal underfoot to keep him up. The explosions by the Raiders make him grit his teeth, his rifle turning away from the cranes and towards the more immediate threat to Vandenberg.
Well, no need to worry about that repurposed drill, so…might as well let the Marines spill in first and blow their load. Best to just stay out of the way, which is what Cilusia does, until the explosions run their course, and those with the big guns make contact. Following behind, Cilusia clunks along in the magnetized boots and space suit holding a rifle like the rest of them. To the best of her ability, she's picking up what targets she can, and firing, especially at those gory cranes.
Its a pretty straightforward affair. Raider? Meet high explosive, armor piercing rounds face-first. Vandenberg's round can't be heard but it can be felt in the deck plating. The 84mm bullet rockets downrange and cuts a neat hole in the Raider's face near the bottom before exploding everywhere. She doesn't even get to enjoy the sight, sadly. She's rushing a reload into the rear of the Karlstov as fast as she possible can as Constin calls out to Heavy. "Shit!" She's moving for cover in time to get hit with a club in the chest but the suit is thankfully thick. The woman takes a knee and aims once more.
Still firing at the same target as before, Samuel glances around, and shaking his head a little bit. "That we do…" he mutters after hearing Constin's words.
It is a bit perturbing not to hear the explosions and gun shots as she should. Sofia looks sympathetic to the Marine who has trouble with her weapon. Then a horror as the crane slams into her. She chokes down a scream. And grunts as she's hit with the drill, staggering back. Right in the chest too! Even Cylons-! Argh! She oofs and looks horrified at the news of a Heavy. She is grateful for the armor. She'll turn her gun as the others do. C'mon.
It's a whole different ball game when power tools decide to rise up against the man, something even more unnerving about being clubbed in the chest by one. Mathers stumbles backwards, with the wind momentarily kicked out of his lungs, and the cover fire he was providing for those wielding the heavy weapons goes a bit wide. "Vandenberg. Constin. Take out the Heavy." Because they're the ones armed enough to do it. Meanwhile, the XO focuses on something he can actually do damage to. Hopefully.
<COMBAT> Sofia will attack Crane1 this turn. Options: Burst
<COMBAT> Stavrian attacks Heavy1 with Rifle AP - ARMOR on Body stops the attack!
<COMBAT> Samuel fires a 3 round burst!
<COMBAT> Samuel attacks Drill2 with Rifle AP - Light wound to Chest.
<COMBAT> Samuel attacks Drill2 with Rifle AP - Light wound to Chest.
<COMBAT> Samuel attacks Drill2 with Rifle AP but MISSES!
<COMBAT> Drill2 attacks Stavrian with Knife - ARMOR on Chest stops the attack!
This is just odd although Richards can't help but to laugh at the same time, this over how absurd and surreal everything feels. "Like being in a nightmare about a dentist," he utters while looking at those drills. It's the cranes he pays attention to for now, however, and now not one but both are his intended targets.
<COMBAT> Drill1 attacks Constin with Knife - ARMOR on Chest stops the attack!
<COMBAT> Crane1 attacks Stavrian with Club but Stavrian DODGES!
<COMBAT> Constin uses a Missile He!
<COMBAT>
<COMBAT> EXPLOSION! Right Next To Heavy Raider-5330c - Critical wound to Body (Reduced by Armor).
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Heavy Raider-5330c - ARMOR on Cabin stops the attack!
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Heavy Raider-5330c - ARMOR on Cabin stops the attack!
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Heavy Raider-5330c - Critical wound to Cockpit.
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Heavy Raider-5330c - ARMOR on Body stops the attack!
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Heavy Raider-5330c - ARMOR on Cabin stops the attack!
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Heavy Raider-5330c - ARMOR on Left Wing stops the attack!
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Heavy Raider-5330c - ARMOR on Left Wing stops the attack!
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Heavy Raider-5330c - ARMOR on Controls stops the attack!
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Heavy Raider-5330c - ARMOR on Controls stops the attack!
<COMBAT> Cilusia fires fullauto!
<COMBAT> Cilusia attacks Crane1 with Rifle Ap - Light wound to Chest.
<COMBAT> Cilusia attacks Crane1 with Rifle Ap - Moderate wound to Head.
<COMBAT> Cilusia attacks Crane1 with Rifle Ap - Light wound to Right Arm.
<COMBAT> Cilusia attacks Crane1 with Rifle Ap and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Cilusia attacks Crane1 with Rifle Ap and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Cilusia attacks Crane2 with Rifle Ap and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Cilusia attacks Crane2 with Rifle Ap and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Cilusia attacks Crane2 with Rifle Ap and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Cilusia attacks Crane2 with Rifle Ap and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Sofia fires a 3 round burst!
<COMBAT> Sofia attacks Crane1 with Rifle AP - Moderate wound to Abdomen.
<COMBAT> Sofia attacks Crane1 with Rifle AP - Moderate wound to Chest.
<COMBAT> Sofia attacks Crane1 with Rifle AP - Moderate wound to Abdomen.
<COMBAT> Raider2 attacks Mathers with Kew and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Mathers attacks Crane2 with Rifle Ap - Light wound to Left Arm.
<COMBAT> Heavy1 attacks Vandenberg with KEW and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Vandenberg uses a Missile He!
<COMBAT>
<COMBAT> EXPLOSION! Right Next To Heavy Raider-5330c - Serious wound to Body (Reduced by Armor).
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Heavy Raider-5330c - ARMOR on Body stops the attack!
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Heavy Raider-5330c - ARMOR on Controls stops the attack!
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Heavy Raider-5330c - ARMOR on Left Wing stops the attack!
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Heavy Raider-5330c - ARMOR on Right Wing stops the attack!
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Heavy Raider-5330c - ARMOR on Cabin stops the attack!
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Heavy Raider-5330c - Critical wound to Cockpit.
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Heavy Raider-5330c - Critical wound to Cockpit.
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Heavy Raider-5330c - ARMOR on Controls stops the attack!
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Heavy Raider-5330c - ARMOR on Body stops the attack!
<COMBAT> Richards fires fullauto!
<COMBAT> Richards attacks Crane1 with Rifle AP - Light wound to Chest.
<COMBAT> Richards attacks Crane1 with Rifle AP - Light wound to Chest.
<COMBAT> Richards attacks Crane1 with Rifle AP - Light wound to Chest.
<COMBAT> Richards attacks Crane1 with Rifle AP - Serious wound to Chest.
<COMBAT> Richards attacks Crane1 with Rifle AP and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Richards attacks Crane2 with Rifle AP but MISSES!
<COMBAT> Richards attacks Crane2 with Rifle AP - Light wound to Chest.
<COMBAT> Richards attacks Crane2 with Rifle AP and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Richards attacks Crane2 with Rifle AP and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Crane2 attacks Sofia with Club but Sofia DODGES!
<COMBAT> Polaris has started a new turn. Pose and choose your action.
<COMBAT> Crane1 has been KO'd!
<COMBAT> Heavy Raider-5330c has been KO'd!
<COMBAT> Heavy1 has been KO'd!
The Heavy Raider occupies Constin's entire focus, as the Sergeant sends a missile streaking up at the big armored vessel. The blast rocks the big boat, which spits gunfire an instant before Vandenberg's blast slams into it. Constin staggers backward as a drill strikes him in the chest- but the lack of instant decompression makes it clear he's still alive. "Somebody get this prehistoric screwdriver offa me-" he barks as he loads another rocket, targetting the wounded Heavy Raider.
The exit is visible at last, illuminated by the red track lighting running like capillaries all along the walls and the powerful headlamps attached to the EVA suits. One goes to port, one goes to starboard, and one goes up — which means that Mathers' team must climb, if it can get through the forest of cranes and drills now flinging their counterparts this way and that. But first, they need to deal with the slight matter of a massive burning ship exploding above them, its jutting turret spinning like some insane whirligig as it careens toward the Marines now glued to the deck…
Vandenberg ducks behind cover just in time for the rounds to prang off the deck plating all around her. Good Gods! She tilts her head away from the rounds and shields the Karlstov from it, too. Constin's fire breaks the Heavy's own and provides her time to lean out. Hovering out there, she lifts the Karlstov into position and fires. BOOM! Down goes another. "Keep it up, Sergeant!" she cheers on, reloading another round into the tube. But spotting the crashing ship, she yells "INCOMING!!!"
<FS3> Constin rolls Repair: Terrible Failure.
<FS3> Vandenberg rolls Repair: Success.
Samuel still works on trying to cut down that drill he's been fighting with, frowning a bit to himself now.
Stavrian ducks the swing of one crane and gets dinged in the chest with a blade that bounces right off his armor again. He braces the rifle against his shoulder again, the barrel trained up on the drunken raider intent on spewing explosives into the attacking party.
Fortuitous enough to escape both explosions and marauding power tools — maybe they're the cousins to the one she just left float into space and that's why they're so pissed! — Cilusia manages to not only fire at the cranes, but to hit one of them as well! Half of them are taken out, so, maybe the next target should be that raider that still seems to be shooting at folks. But then the call of incoming has her ducking down for cover, as she takes aim at the raider.
"This is growing tiresome," Richards intones to himself, off-coms when he does. With one crane out of commission the second gets his full attention, his eyes sweeping over those present with him to make sure everyone is okay.
Sofia will turn her gun on the thing pestering Constin. "Got it!" She - she - speaks. She normally has some sort of tone, but it's lost. She just fires, mindlessly in the horror all around her.
Constin grits his teeth as the next shell doesn't cleanly fit into the Karlstov's firing chamber. No cursing- things are too serious for that right now, but attempts to slam the shell into place are fruitless. "Karl's icing," he growls into the wireless, abruptly letting the spoiled weapon float and unslinging his rifle.
<COMBAT> Constin passes.
<COMBAT> Cilusia fires a 3 round burst!
<COMBAT> Cilusia attacks Raider2 with Rifle Ap - Moderate wound to Chest.
<COMBAT> Cilusia attacks Raider2 with Rifle Ap and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Cilusia attacks Raider2 with Rifle Ap and MISSES!
"Move! Cover!" The Marine XO finds some sense of protection from the falling bits and pieces. "Cover their asses!" Mathers spouts before he too changes targets, trying to ignore the hellfire that's coming down around him. There is no time to celebrate any successes, for the bad just keeps rolling in.
<COMBAT> Stavrian fires a 3 round burst!
<COMBAT> Stavrian attacks Dyingheavy with Rifle AP but MISSES!
<COMBAT> Stavrian attacks Dyingheavy with Rifle AP - Moderate wound to Weapon.
<COMBAT> Stavrian attacks Dyingheavy with Rifle AP but MISSES!
<COMBAT> Richards fires a 3 round burst!
<COMBAT> Richards attacks Crane2 with Rifle AP - Light wound to Left Arm.
<COMBAT> Richards attacks Crane2 with Rifle AP - Light wound to Chest.
<COMBAT> Richards attacks Crane2 with Rifle AP but MISSES!
<COMBAT> Drill2 attacks Stavrian with Knife - ARMOR on Chest stops the attack!
<COMBAT> Drill1 attacks Constin with Knife - ARMOR on Chest stops the attack!
<COMBAT> Crane2 attacks Sofia with Club but Sofia DODGES!
<COMBAT> Vandenberg uses a Missile He!
<COMBAT>
<COMBAT> EXPLOSION! Right Next To Heavy Raider-8640n - ARMOR on Body stops the attack!
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Heavy Raider-8640n - ARMOR on Left Wing stops the attack!
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Heavy Raider-8640n - ARMOR on Body stops the attack!
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Heavy Raider-8640n - ARMOR on Engine stops the attack!
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Heavy Raider-8640n - NEAR MISS!
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Heavy Raider-8640n - Critical wound to Weapon.
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Heavy Raider-8640n - NEAR MISS!
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Heavy Raider-8640n - NEAR MISS!
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Heavy Raider-8640n - ARMOR on Right Wing stops the attack!
<COMBAT> Sofia fires a 3 round burst!
<COMBAT> Sofia attacks Drill1 with Rifle AP - Light wound to Right Leg.
<COMBAT> Sofia attacks Drill1 with Rifle AP but MISSES!
<COMBAT> Sofia attacks Drill1 with Rifle AP but MISSES!
<COMBAT> Samuel fires a 3 round burst!
<COMBAT> Samuel attacks Drill2 with Rifle AP - Moderate wound to Left Hand.
<COMBAT> Samuel attacks Drill2 with Rifle AP - Moderate wound to Abdomen.
<COMBAT> Samuel attacks Drill2 with Rifle AP - Light wound to Chest.
<COMBAT> Mathers fires a 3 round burst!
<COMBAT> Mathers attacks Drill1 with Rifle Ap - Serious wound to Head.
<COMBAT> Mathers attacks Drill1 with Rifle Ap - Light wound to Chest.
<COMBAT> Mathers attacks Drill1 with Rifle Ap and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Dyingheavy uses a Mine He!
<COMBAT>
<COMBAT> EXPLOSION! Very Far From Vandenberg - Light wound to Head (Reduced by Armor).
<COMBAT> Vandenberg is not hit by shrapnel.
<COMBAT>
<COMBAT> EXPLOSION! Very Far From Constin - ARMOR on Head stops the attack!
<COMBAT> Constin is not hit by shrapnel.
<COMBAT>
<COMBAT> EXPLOSION! Far From Richards - Light wound to Head (Reduced by Armor).
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Richards - Light wound to Left Arm.
<COMBAT>
<COMBAT> EXPLOSION! Very Far From Mathers - Light wound to Head.
<COMBAT> Mathers is not hit by shrapnel.
<COMBAT>
<COMBAT> EXPLOSION! Very Far From Stavrian - Light wound to Head (Reduced by Armor).
<COMBAT> Stavrian is not hit by shrapnel.
<COMBAT> Raider2 attacks Mathers with Kew and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Polaris has started a new turn. Pose and choose your action.
<COMBAT> Drill1 has been KO'd!
<COMBAT> Heavy Raider-8640n has been KO'd!
<COMBAT> Dyingheavy has been KO'd!
<COMBAT> Raider2 has been KO'd!
Stavrian feels the vibration from the explosion right down into his teeth, setting off a high-pitched whine way deep in his ears. "Frakkin…!" He jams his gloved hand against the side of his helmet, feeling where the plastic has dented inwards, and there's good shot of other swearing in some aggressive-sounding Sagittarian dialect as he grabs for sealant from his leg pack. By sealant we mean duct tape.
Spinning, exploding turrets. This is fantastic. Vandenberg nods to Constin. "I got him! Last round!" Apparently the Marine S-Three only brought three rounds. She swings out of cover once more and fires. The round slams right into the turret and blows it apart before it can crash down into the Marines. She doesn't have enoug htime to duck back though and takes some shrapnel to her EVA helmet. The impact is hard enough to jar her head into the side of the thing but she's alright. Her suit isn't. "Godsfrakkingdamnit!" Much like Stavrian, she's clamboring and fumbling with the thick rolls of tape to reseal the little hole poked in her suit.
Mathers' teeth rattle in his skull, but beneath even that racket there is a telltale hiss that makes his stomach drop. He's losing O2 and fast. The XO falls back on his rump, rifle across his lap and he's fumbling in his pack for the emergency kit. "Press on!" He yells across the comms while he fumbles with the roll of tape, trying to tear a piece off and seal a hose with those damnable clumsy gloves.
Again, Constin is rocked by a blast without sound- it is only for his magnetized boots that the big sergeant keeps his feet. Somehow, the marine's bodyarmor has kept his abused EVA suit intact against drills, and raiders and explosions. A long burst is sent over the remaining functional enemy tech, "Deckies, assist with the Oh-Two leaks, now!" the MaA barks as he opens fire.
The Heavy Raider finally disintegrates in a spray of molten metal. Chunks of the cockpit slam into a nearby crane, wrenching it out of its place; a tylium tank detonates directly in the center of one of the two production lines, ripping the ground from the floor so powerful is the explosion. And it's all the Marines can do to avoid being torn from the deck, their bodies put under intense strain as their torsos fly backwards while their feet stay where they are. The sharp, sudden hiss of escaping air fills the cavernous room with crystallizing gas, puffs of white billowing out like so many CAGs getting high. But another Marine isn't so lucky — for his helmet, already weakened by the explosion, is now smashed to pieces by a furious drill, its bit digging into his right eye before exiting out the back of his head.
"Frak!" bellows Master Sergeant Amika Keller, who with her Areion team has moved up the wall so she's standing at a ninety-degree angle compared to the rest of them. "You heard the guy! Take the port hatch while the main team unfraks itself. Conserve ammo, say again, conserve ammo! Who knows what the frak's out there in front!"
The impact of the flying shards of debris has Richard wincing. The wince soon becoming a full on grimace when he hears the hiss of O2 being vented from a hole in both arm and helmet. "Damnit. I need some tape," he announces to the party as a whole while he uses one hand to try and block the hole in his helmet, the opposite one used to cover the hole in the suit itself.
Even though she's behind cover from the explosion, laying down covering fire, Cilusia can still feel it deep down in her chest. For a second after, she just sits there blinking, before gathering her senses. "How many…I mean…are the patches working? Do you need help?" Cilusia calls on the comms. She's still firing away though, not yet out of ammo. Best to put those cranes and drills out of their misery before attempting a serious patch job.
Samuel keeps his attention on the target he's been moving for all the time. Not paying much attention to anything else so far. After all, nothing's been hitting him for once.
Nuts! Sofia pulls some duct tape. Go go gadget snipe. Her firing is less effective. She looks ill at the Marine who gets an extreme dental job. Actually, one just *might* hear her stopping the inevitable vomit chain. "H-here," She moves over towards Richards with a piece of tape. Don't barf, don't barf, don't barf. Visions of last night's midrats fly through her mind. And the image of what she just missed, her own feet moving away from being torn and - hissing - and - she just has to tape marines. One piece of tape. One Marine. One piece of tape. One Marine. It's a focal point and the snipe's seetting about it.
<COMBAT> Cilusia fires a 3 round burst!
<COMBAT> Cilusia attacks Crane2 with Rifle Ap - Light wound to Left Hand.
<COMBAT> Cilusia attacks Crane2 with Rifle Ap but MISSES!
<COMBAT> Cilusia attacks Crane2 with Rifle Ap and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Richards passes.
<COMBAT> Crane2 attacks Sofia with Club but Sofia DODGES!
<COMBAT> Constin fires fullauto!
<COMBAT> Constin attacks Drill2 with Rifle Ap - Light wound to Chest.
<COMBAT> Constin attacks Drill2 with Rifle Ap - Light wound to Chest.
<COMBAT> Constin attacks Drill2 with Rifle Ap - Moderate wound to Left Arm.
<COMBAT> Constin attacks Drill2 with Rifle Ap and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Constin attacks Drill2 with Rifle Ap and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Constin attacks Crane2 with Rifle Ap and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Constin attacks Crane2 with Rifle Ap - Moderate wound to Head.
<COMBAT> Constin attacks Crane2 with Rifle Ap and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Constin attacks Crane2 with Rifle Ap and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Vandenberg passes.
<COMBAT> Stavrian passes.
<COMBAT> Mathers passes.
<COMBAT> Drill2 attacks Stavrian with Knife and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Sofia tries to attack but has no target!
<COMBAT> Samuel fires a 3 round burst!
<COMBAT> Samuel attacks Drill2 with Rifle AP - Light wound to Chest.
<COMBAT> Samuel attacks Drill2 with Rifle AP and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Samuel attacks Drill2 with Rifle AP - Moderate wound to Head.
<COMBAT> Polaris has started a new turn. Pose and choose your action.
<COMBAT> Crane2 has been KO'd!
<COMBAT> Drill2 has been KO'd!
Mathers can breath a little easier, quite literally, now that his O2 is once more sealed within his suit. Back on his feet, he does a quick visual sweep and then sees where his team needs to go. "Able team!" He barks, voice crisp on the comms so that there is no mistake they are being addressed. "Our path lies upwards. Follow the red. Up the tube. Time to climb! Go go go." Before it starts to get too crowded in here.
Keller's elites have already advanced to port, their heavy footsteps thudding soundlessly as they disappear down the hatch. With equal parts exhortation and furious pronouncements about the moral character of her subordinates' mothers, Sergeant Boelyn takes her team to starboard, following the senior NCO's lead. Which leaves the tube leading up to the nerve center — or at least the intelligence reports called it a nerve center — for Mathers and his men. Behind them the various tools snap and spit, but at the end of the day they were made for delicate work. A veritable sea of pulsing, writhing, absolutely shit-wrecked chrome snaps behind them as the Marines leave behind the killing field and make their way up the tube.
And when they do, they realize they don't need their headlamps, not now. The walls themselves are made of some eerie transparent metal, in whose water-slick walls runs a waterfall of something that looks like blood shot through with glittering specks of light. A hundred meters ahead, two human-sized tanks protrude from the walls like a pair of bulbous black kidneys, their slick surfaces throbbing like a pair of pumping hearts. And from behind them step four long-dormant Centurions: the sole guardians of the Foundry's inner sanctum, their sleek heads carved with three vertical slashes running from the base of their eyeslit to what passes for a chin.
Cylon tattoos? Stranger things have happened.
<FS3> Stavrian rolls Firstaid: Great Success.
<FS3> Sofia rolls Repair: Good Success.
<FS3> Cilusia rolls Repair: Good Success.
Sofia freezes in her duct tape Marine assembly line. She looks a bit ill. She pauses at the sight of the tanks. "H-hey! The tanks - there's light that's - I think it's doing something to the blood … light stuff." This baffles Sofia. Tattooed Cylons? tanks? Blood and light? Is this factory itself a creature? She is really ill, the images from earlier smashed Marines lingering in her brain like bad, forbidden jokes that hang in the air. She tries not to throw up and instead eyes the tanks, sticking her tongue out a little as she aims for one. Wondering…
Stavrian's attention is yanked towards those bizarre waterfalls, something occuring to him that holds him still for a moment — which is quickly shattered by the sounds of clanking metal and reloading chambers. "Shit." He backs off from the wall and pulls his rifle back up into place, taking aim at the things standing in their way.
Samuel shakes his head as he looks around, "Better stop it from doing it, then?" he offers a bit lightly towards Sofia, before he takes aim for one of those Centurions. "Okay, time to die…" he mutters under his breath.
Constin trucks along toward the fore of the Colonial line of march, handing off his remaining stock of shells to Vandenberg. The sergeant moves in as near a combat crouch as one can while wearing magnetic boots and an EVA suit. Upon the first sighting of those Centurions, he opens fire. Centurions occupy his attention. He understands Centurions- whatever those cylon ship-kidneys are, he has no idea.
"This is one hell of a way to light this place up," Cilusia quips as she once again scurries after the Marines. As they hurry off, she does her best to affect repairs to their busted suits, slapping more serious patches into place over some of the hastily patched damage…all while doing her best to stretch onto tippy toe and reach some of the spots. It puts her near the back of the group, and she's looking at the bulbous tank things, and the way they seem to be changing that stuff as it passes through. "Maybe we should ask them?" she says, taking at the Cents with the scarred faces. "Looks like the B-team."
Vandenberg follows her orders, keeping near the front of the group. Lead from the front, or so the saying goes. She's glancing at the walls when there's movement up ahead from those tanks. "What the fra-CONTACT!" She doesn't even bother trying to get behind cover. She just lifts the Karlstov and blindfires without bothering to take any kind of aim through the sights.
<COMBAT> Samuel fires a 3 round burst!
<COMBAT> Samuel attacks Cent4 with Rifle AP - Moderate wound to .
<COMBAT> Samuel attacks Cent4 with Rifle AP - Light wound to .
<COMBAT> Samuel attacks Cent4 with Rifle AP - Light wound to .
<COMBAT> Vandenberg uses a Missile He!
<COMBAT>
<COMBAT> EXPLOSION! Right Next To Tank2 - Critical wound to Head.
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Tank2 - Critical wound to Left Leg.
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Tank2 - Critical wound to Right Leg.
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Tank2 - Critical wound to Right Foot.
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Tank2 - Critical wound to Left Hand.
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Tank2 - Critical wound to Left Hand.
<COMBAT>
<COMBAT> EXPLOSION! Right Next To Cent3 - Critical wound to .
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Cent3 - Serious wound to .
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Cent3 - Moderate wound to .
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Cent3 - Critical wound to .
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Cent3 - Critical wound to .
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Cent3 - Serious wound to .
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Cent3 - Serious wound to .
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Cent3 - Critical wound to .
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Cent3 - Serious wound to .
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Cent3 - Critical wound to .
<COMBAT>
<COMBAT> EXPLOSION! Right Next To Cent4 - Moderate wound to .
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Cent4 - Critical wound to .
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Cent4 - Serious wound to .
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Cent4 - Critical wound to .
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Cent4 - Serious wound to .
<COMBAT> SHRAPNEL! Cent4 - Critical wound to .
<COMBAT> Constin fires fullauto!
<COMBAT> Constin attacks Cent4 with Rifle Ap - Moderate wound to .
<COMBAT> Constin attacks Cent4 with Rifle Ap - Light wound to .
<COMBAT> Constin attacks Cent4 with Rifle Ap and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Constin attacks Cent4 with Rifle Ap and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Constin attacks Cent4 with Rifle Ap and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Constin attacks Cent3 with Rifle Ap and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Constin attacks Cent3 with Rifle Ap - Light wound to .
<COMBAT> Constin attacks Cent3 with Rifle Ap - Moderate wound to .
<COMBAT> Constin attacks Cent3 with Rifle Ap and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Constin's weapon clicks empty.
<COMBAT> Tank1 passes.
<COMBAT> Stavrian fires a 3 round burst!
<COMBAT> Stavrian attacks Cent1 with Rifle AP - Moderate wound to .
<COMBAT> Stavrian attacks Cent1 with Rifle AP - Light wound to .
<COMBAT> Stavrian attacks Cent1 with Rifle AP - Moderate wound to .
<COMBAT> Richards fires a 3 round burst!
<COMBAT> Richards attacks Cent1 with Rifle AP - Light wound to .
<COMBAT> Richards attacks Cent1 with Rifle AP - Light wound to .
<COMBAT> Richards attacks Cent1 with Rifle AP - Light wound to .
<COMBAT> Mathers fires a 3 round burst!
<COMBAT> Mathers attacks Cent2 with Rifle Ap but MISSES!
<COMBAT> Mathers attacks Cent2 with Rifle Ap but MISSES!
<COMBAT> Mathers attacks Cent2 with Rifle Ap but MISSES!
<COMBAT> Cilusia fires a 3 round burst!
<COMBAT> Cilusia attacks Cent3 with Rifle Ap - Moderate wound to .
<COMBAT> Cilusia attacks Cent3 with Rifle Ap - Moderate wound to .
<COMBAT> Cilusia attacks Cent3 with Rifle Ap - Moderate wound to .
<COMBAT> Cent4 attacks Richards with LMG Tripod and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Cent3 attacks Richards with LMG Tripod and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Cent1 attacks Richards with LMG Tripod and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Tank2 passes.
<COMBAT> Sofia fires a 3 round burst!
<COMBAT> Sofia attacks Tank1 with Rifle AP - Serious wound to Neck.
<COMBAT> Sofia attacks Tank1 with Rifle AP - Moderate wound to Abdomen.
<COMBAT> Sofia attacks Tank1 with Rifle AP - Moderate wound to Head.
<COMBAT> Cent2 attacks Mathers with LMG Tripod but MISSES!
<COMBAT> Polaris has started a new turn. Pose and choose your action.
<COMBAT> Cent1 has been KO'd!
<COMBAT> Cent3 has been KO'd!
<COMBAT> Cent4 has been KO'd!
<COMBAT> Tank1 has been KO'd!
<COMBAT> Tank2 has been KO'd!
By the time the exchange of gunfire lifts, only one Centurion is left to face the incoming Colonial horde. Too bad Cylons don't show terror. But on the last scarred Centurion fights, drawing something like — inspiration — from the sudden flood of blood and light that soaks into the grooves in its forehead. Its weapon fires with preternatural accuracy as the station's vitae or whatever else flows through its veins seeps into its brain.
And suddenly, as the lights go out all around them, the sound of a piercing woman's scream cuts through duct-taped helmets to strike the Colonials to the core.
A hail of bullets and explosions, this is the only sound to Stavrian for what feels like forever. Even with his helmet dampening the volume. The only steady rhythm among the storm of rat tats and booms is his own pulse, which he can feel behind his eyes and in his temples. The scream sends a cold spike right up his spine, beads of sweat on his hairline inside the helmet. "The frak was that? Anyone hurt?"
Van fires and the hallway explodes. The blast throws her backwards on her magnetic boots, the effect a little strange to watch. The Karlstov flies out of her hands and the tether on the recoilless rifle stretches out. Unfurling, she rights herself and scrambles to make into cover. She drops behind a hallway intersection, trying to yank the gun back in for a reload just as the lights go out. You can't miss the scream. Her head whips around while she works.
Holy noodles. Marines are doom on wheels. Sofia is definitely in awe despite the horrors. Then she blinks and gasps as the lights go out. She grits her teeth hearing the woman's scream. No more screams. No more lingering mental horrors of those poor Marines and medics. No more snipes and squids ending up in horrible ways. She pauses to take a potshot at the Centurion, though she is grateful for her headlamp. Even if it's a … giant targ— oh… Whose scream was that? She peers around.
<FS3> Vandenberg rolls Repair-20: Terrible Failure.
Richards starts some, that being at the scream. "What the hell?" Frowning, he ducks behind a corner, only once he's feeling safe does he take aim.
What the frak was that?! Mathers headlamp swivels this way and that, illuminating the eerie livingesque walls that have suddenly gone dark. Gone dead? "Able team, report." Just on the off chance that blood-curtling scream belonged to one of his.
"I hear that…scream. I'm not hurt. Anyone else?" Cilusia hopes that it's implied only the other women on the team here will respond to that. If that's a guy's scream, there's quite a bit more wrong about that than just the screaming. When things start blowing up, going dark, and her rifle clicking empty, Cilusia presses herself to the wall in whatever semblance of cover she can find there. Fumbling around in the equipment attached to the suit, breathing hard and fogging up her helmet in bursts, she pulls out another cartridge and exchanges it.
"Charges planted and wired," comes Keller's voice through the com. "Able Actual, Bravo Team has set up the bomb." A note of contempt can be heard in her rough alto. "This is frakking bullshit. Not even a single Centurion? Sheeeyit."
"Negative contacts here," says Sergeant Boelyn, a second later. "What Keller said. This shit's more boring than busting punks aboard Elpis."
"Able Five Actual, not injured," Stavrian's voice comes over the mic for report. "If I was going to scream it sure as shit wouldn't sound like that."
<COMBAT> Sofia attacks Cent2 with Rifle AP - Light wound to .
<COMBAT> Mathers fires a 3 round burst!
<COMBAT> Mathers attacks Cent2 with Rifle Ap but MISSES!
<COMBAT> Mathers attacks Cent2 with Rifle Ap but MISSES!
<COMBAT> Mathers attacks Cent2 with Rifle Ap but MISSES!
Constin is midway through the process of clapping a second clip into his P90 as the station's lights go out and that scream splits the air- wait a second, "How can we even hear that shit?" he growls to himself, as the clip clicks into place.. "One Cylon still up-"
Samuel blinks as almost every single Cylon goes down. He starts taking aim, but then there's that scream. Ducking down a bit and looking around carefully. "I've got a bad feeling about this…" he mutters with a bit of a grimace, before he goes back to aiming and preparing to fire again.
<COMBAT> Richards fires a 3 round burst!
<COMBAT> Richards attacks Cent2 with Rifle AP but MISSES!
<COMBAT> Richards attacks Cent2 with Rifle AP - Moderate wound to .
<COMBAT> Richards attacks Cent2 with Rifle AP and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Richards's weapon clicks empty.
<COMBAT> Cent2 fires fullauto!
<COMBAT> Cent2 attacks Vandenberg with LMG Tripod - Moderate wound to Left Hand.
<COMBAT> Cent2 attacks Vandenberg with LMG Tripod and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Cent2 attacks Constin with LMG Tripod - ARMOR on Head stops the attack!
<COMBAT> Cent2 attacks Stavrian with LMG Tripod and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Cent2 attacks Richards with LMG Tripod and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Cent2 attacks Cilusia with LMG Tripod and MISSES!
<COMBAT> Vandenberg passes.
<COMBAT> Samuel fires a 3 round burst!
<COMBAT> Samuel attacks Cent2 with Rifle AP - Light wound to .
<COMBAT> Samuel attacks Cent2 with Rifle AP but MISSES!
<COMBAT> Samuel attacks Cent2 with Rifle AP - Moderate wound to .
<COMBAT> Constin reloads.
<COMBAT> Cilusia reloads.
<COMBAT> Stavrian attacks Cent2 with Rifle AP - Light wound to .
<COMBAT> Polaris has started a new turn. Pose and choose your action.
<COMBAT> Cent2 has been KO'd!
The Marines' bullets hit home — but not before the hail of fire from the last Centurion standing makes its mark. Vandenberg's glove is punctured through the palm where the bullet hit, and from it now comes the inaudible but inevitable hiss of precious, precious trimix. Yet one gets the feeling it's not the bullets that killed the Cylon but the overload of whatever it is was soaking into its head, which now drifts down the corridor in fist-sized blobs to burst harmlessly against visors and suits. And as Centurion corpses and the bio-mechanical films covering the tanks drift up and up in the tube, carried along by the inertia of their death, the soldiers' bright headlamps cut through the gushing walls to illuminate the path ahead.
A path, the observant will see, which leads to a room.
Bullets bounce and prang all around Van as she tries to tug at the Karlstov's tether. One round impacts the Karl directly and blasts a hole clean through it and out the other side to render it useless for now. That'll have to get fixed- Whiz- "I'm hit! Shit!" Van calls out, reaching for her duct tape again. Seal it before it vents her blood, right?
Stavrian slings his rifle over his shoulder, ducking past a Marine or two towards Vandenberg. "I got it, sir." Duct tape makes a great pressure bandage, wound tightly enough. He reaches for the Marine's hand, tearing off a long strip of tape that can wrap all the way around.
Sofia looks a bit uneasy. Blobs… what is drifting along. "Hey, don't they share memories when they die…" She considers quietly. Or was Eleven wrong? Sofia quirks a brow and shrugs it off. For now, she will help duct tape anyone who wishes it up. She's a fan of duct tape for some reason.
"Clear!" Constin barks as he sweeps the chamber of blasted Centurions and floating goop, before treading forward to the corridor at the far side, and the room beyond. Vandenberg's call draws a short look, ascertaining that the Lieutenant is being treated, before regarding the road ahead. "Moving in."
"Able Actual copies that, Bravo. Charlie. Looks like we got all the heat up here. Your objectives are complete, fall back. Able team is pressing forward. Cover our asses." Mathers conveys across the comms before he's motioning his group forward with a hitch of his head. "Wounded fall back. Medics attend. Two guns stay behind, the rest move on for intel extraction. Oorah, motherfrakkers."
Samuel shakes his head a little bit, pausing as he hears Sofia's words. "What?" he asks, sounding a bit curious as he looks to the engineer, then back into the corridor. Starting to move forward at the words from Mathers. Looking around even more carefully now.
There's a quick look to the El-Tee when she announces she's hit, the expression on Dick's face dark. Yeah, this is him not pleased but it seems like she's getting treated so he stays put. Sofia is glanced at then and he calls out, "Let's save the philosophical discussions and shit like that for when we get back to the frakking ship."
"Ew ew ew gross!" Cilusia says of the blobs of…stuff. She steps around it carefully, turning her nose up to it inside her helmet. "Why don't we get into a clear stretch and take care of some of those lingering leaks, huh? Never know when they'll decide to come back, right?" Now's as good a time any, it would seem. Rifle reloaded and ready for the next wave, she just slings it over her shoulder and falls back in line.
"Thanks, Doc," Van nods with a look of appreciation to Stavrian. "At least it was the left. I need the right." Wait. No, that didn't come out right. Bah screw it. Vandenberg brings the Karl in on her and straps it to her back and unslings the rifle. She looks indignant at Mathers' comment about the wounded though, lofting her brow. There's a glance to Stavrian as if to ask 'Am I wounded?'.
"You're good, sir. I'll stitch it back on the ship." Stavrian jams the tape roll back into his leg pack and stands up, boots clonking awkwardly. His hand hesitates at his medical pack, finally yanking out one of the small collection tubes strapped to the inside. If he can wheedle one of the blobs inside, he will, a grim look on his face.
Follow Mathers' orders they do. The room itself is barely large enough to fit five Centurions, but as the Colonials enter they'll find just enough room to crowd around its central occupant. Which, contrary to Intel's predictions, is not actually a bank of computers but what looks to be a very pale — woman — ! — whose glassy and unblinking eyes look up at a web of clear tubes whose contents pulse a dull and dying red. And then, suddenly, the thing bursts up from the slimy black tank in which it sits to reveal its naked breasts — but below them nothing at all human remains. In place of a spinal cord, it has a featureless chrome tube that flicks back and forth in the water — water? — in which it sits, with twelve subsidiary tubes connecting it to the ship as a whole. One pallid white arm flails in the air, overgrown fingernails clawing at nothing, as it opens its mouth and speaks —
"Alert. Atmospheric oxygen content decreased by three percent. Alert. Functions nominal no longer. Starboard sensors blind like Tiresias but this time it's Athena not Hera who does it. Alert. Atmospheric nitrogen content decreased by twenty-eight percent. Lethality is a function of pressure and heat and death. So let five begins the countdown until wetware functioning ceases and the children fall before the parents who fell before the children. Four continues the countdown but four must stop at three. Three are the legs of the triskelion. Three is the marvel of the gods and the god. Three is greater than one is greater than two. Alert. Three is three is three is three is — " And with a pulsing shudder, the thing flails once, twice — and is still, its eyelids blinking in some perverse semblance of REM as with a sudden great lurch the floor rumbles and rumbles and stops.
For now.
Constin keeps his rifle and headlamp fixed on the… whatever this is. "Orders, Captain?" he prompts drily, keeping the gun trainined on the .. whatever this is, throughout the stream of consciousness chatter. Magnetic boots remain steady throughout the shaking and subsequent stillness.
Airway, breathing, circulation — a basic emergency litany that immediately sends a shock into Stavrian's reflexes. But how do you find an airway on something that looks like that, does it even breathe, and OH GODS WHAT IS CIRCULATING in there? The medic rarely freezes but right now, just right now, it takes the sound of Constin's voice to snap him back to prioritizing, his mouth cotton-dry. "Shit." Sagittarian eloquence at its best. "It might be…" Alive? Is that an applicable word? "Functional, sir. Orders?"
Sofia shakes her head, "I think he's telling his friends." She points to the goop. Or so SHE thinks. She just goes quiet then. So far they've obliterated most of what they've come across right? She avoids stepping in it. "Maybe I'm wrong," She agrees and goes quiet at the comment to get philosophical later. She's not one to disobey and settles in. She pauses though, noticing the - woman. Her eyes are wide with horror. Miss - Who are you? "Who… are you?" She asks softly to the woman, almost wordlessly. She is baffled by the woman's babbling. She's horrified. Who are you? Who were you? Would you have been my friend? How can a person be - or do this? Was she a person once? Or a skinjob chosen for this task? How much like a mother to this place was she? Or was she a brain? Questions reel. I'm sorry. If only it could hear. I'm sorry. Why is she sorry? She's saddened, sicked and horrified by the loss of her own and strangely saddened by this too. Did she want this? Sofia just stares. "Oh. Gods." Why is it you she thinks of first anyway? That's … not supposed to be a person. But the words around her just snap like icecicles.
Lieutenant Vandenberg, shorty. She tries to peer around shoulders to see what the hell is happening. Its hard with big brutes like Elf. She moves eventually to see and stops. She just stares with wide eyes at this thing. What the hell is that and why is it talking? "Is- Nevermind." She just keeps her rifle on it, waiting for orders. Even as the floor rumbles beneath them, the woman stands fast. Uhh.
Samuel blinks at that sight, keeping his rifle ready. Blinking a few more times at what's being said by the… whatisit, he shakes his head a bit, before he looks over at Stavrian as he hears what's being said. "No shit, sir…" he remarks at that first word that came from the Sagittarian.
"What…the…frak?" is Cilusia's enlightened response. "Whatever it is, I think we broke it. Is anyone making sense of what the hell it's saying?" When the floor lurches, she rocks a bit on her feet and looks from person to person. "Is that…thing wired in to this place, you think? Maybe we damaged it by blowing up all those pieces of equipment, and those…tanks. That stuff looks a hell of a lot like blood."
Richards sneers slightly as he sees the woman, his look kind of… disgusted? "Frak…" Frowning a bit more deeply than he had been, he leans in closer to Vandenberg, his voice a tight whisper. "Is that what I think it is, sir?" He's waiting for orders so doesn't move to attack despite his desire to blow the unknown woman away.
Mathers toes up on the vat of goo, his rifle raised with the business end pointing to the woman-thing. He doesn't have any time to make any demands or question it, gone as she is after that short mindless rant. Orders. They're looking to him. "We were told to bring back intel from the central computer. Let's bring the whole frakking computer. Rip her out of that shit and let's get the frak out of here before the whole frakking place shudders to pieces."
"Recommend Charlie and/or Bravo pick over the wreckage of that dead Heavy sir. Might get a lead on a new skinjob, if they got the time," Constin mutters as he slings his rifle, and peers at the various tubes and lines, before beginning the none too delicate process of detaching the half torso from the… whatever that is.
Stavrian gets to the side of the tank, unripping the velcro from his medical pack. Given the thick gloves it takes a Doppler to try and find a pulse at her throat, which…well. "No pulse…no respirations." Jaw tense, he looks at her face as Constin starts yanking on tubes, reaching out a gloved hand to touch her cheek. "Eyelids have stopped moving. Shit. Sir, detaching all this will kill it."
There's - a strange sympathy. But Sofia shakes it off. Who were you? Sofia stares quietly at the woman's face. Why did you talk like that? What did you see? She just kind of stares quietly and will help collect things as she can, but never does that - creature? Robot? Person? It's troubling to question the definition of personhood when someone has a face but they aren't /like you/. It's easy when it spits and hates you, but otherwise. Well, it gets weird. For her part, she just quietly helps here or there.
"No time, no time." Mathers barks, as the ship itself is starting to feel a little weak beneath their feet. "It'd dead anyway, Medic." He reminds Stavrian. "Either we pull it out of here to study, or I'm blowing it to frakking smitherines when we clear. Now MOVE." He goes back on the comms to the other teams. "Clear all possible intel, Bravo. Charlie. Prepare for evac."
The woman — the thing — is unresponse save for the fluttering of its eyes and its silent mouthing of nonsense syllables, the sharp movement from which contorts a face that might once have been beautiful but is now no longer. But the moment Stavrian and the others reach into the tank to begin emergency transport procedures its body shudders and flails, and from its mouth comes a piercing, ear-splitting, blood-curdling scream: one that abruptly ends once its body is removed from the vat, torn from the tubes into which it's been plugged for the entirety of its existence. It'd be heavy if not for the lack of gravity.
Small comfort indeed.
And as the station shudders all around, the Raptors from outside zoom inside, blasting one by one past clutching drill-bits and cranes and walls of fluid light now flooding through tubes and corridors alike in a single red tsunami. But the explosives are faster than whatever self-destructive impulse has been triggered by that thing in the tank — as one by one the Raptors blast out, their engines flaring bright and yellow behind them as the Foundry implodes in a halo of light and flame.
This, presumably, is why the silent mastiffs are the ones you have to watch.