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Post by Tycho Kalhalati on May 6, 2023 23:06:20 GMT
"We might not have that option..." Tycho turned to look over his shoulder at Lemon, resting a fist against Eresh's armored side with a supportive little tap. "If we're dealing with something that zeroed a whole base's security, I have a feeling it can't exactly just lure it where we want."
The Vlaka's eyes drifted back down to the splattered messages on the floor, idly rolling his shoulders. "I'm outta my depth, here. I think we all are, to some degree, maybe except feathers here." His fist slowly dropped back to his side, before he turned to face the other two. "But we're here, we know it's here, and we know what it's done... way I see it, it's up to us to ice this fucking thing, especially if it's personal. Beyond that, I don't even want there to be a chance that something like this lives long enough to find a way offworld."
His tone wasn't exactly aggressive, but the Vlaka's eyes had a particular intensity to them. Maybe it was the fear, maybe it was the subtle thrill underneath it, maybe it was the unexpected draw of a fight that actually felt like it'd be worth it in the end. Either way, Tycho seemed pretty dead-set on staying.
"If you wanna delta, no shame... but do it now if you're gonna do it at all."
The tap caused him to step away, though he nodded in agreement. "Agreed, I assume that if we are going to resolve the situation, it will have to be within the guts of this facility. The wolf man is right, if anyone wants to cut and run, I won't blame you. But if you are going to stay, I would appreciate the assistance. That said.. We will be going forward with no delay. If you can't keep up, I'd suggest that you might want to return to the ships and call in support." Eresh said as he scanned the other three. Tycho seemed willing to help, but with the other two things were uncertain: the one called Jankins in particular seemed keen to retreat, and Queen was clearly very much out of her depth.. both could prove to be liabilities if things escalated too much.
"But the choice is yours, I won't force you either way."
"Y'all realize how dumb y'all're bein'? This is an unknown that wiped out an entire corporate blacksite, an' it very clearly ate yer buddies that wrote whatever those scribbles say. The best bet is ta get topside, not dive into this thing's home turf an try ta wrestle it mono e mono. Call in tha military, come back with some drones or shit to at least figure shit out afore gettin in it's bed."
Lemon started back towards the elevator shaft, while she didn't want to leave the others behind, she also wasn't suicidal. It was time to make a report and request backup, if she could get her hands on some remote drones to come back and scout the facility, she'd at least try to make sure their corpses were recoverable if said corpses weren't eaten by the thing below that is.
"Queen, yer lookin greener than me eyes, recommend you follow to tha surface. Your decision whether to get offworld or stick around and keep watch till a response gets back from the employers."
She looked down at her flashbangs and smoke bombs, then tossed them to the foolhardy mercs.
"If you change yer minds about havin that thing assist yer suicides, you may as well have these, probably won't do much, but it might help yer escape."
“Then I would say that you should be the one to do all of that, contacting reinforcements. But the fact remains that someone still should be down there, getting information on the hostile, waiting for drones is just going to waste even more time. This way, that same Calvary doesn’t come down here and suffer the fate that this facility’s staff did.” Eresh said reasonably, taking the proffered explosives.
“I don’t intend to die at all. In fact.. I’d be more worried about the creature’s wellbeing, whatever it is. After all, when it comes to hunting in enclosed spaces.. you have one of the very best standing right before you.” He then sighed.
“But if the situation is as bad as you fear, we will do our best to make it topside again.”
Post by Tycho Kalhalati on May 8, 2023 3:48:22 GMT
"And putting the problem on someone else's dime is your solution?" He replied to Lemon, sharpening his gaze slightly. "Military bureaucracy wouldn't do shit for us... we'd be stuck waiting here for at least a day or so, and already that's one day too long. I'd rather be a little stupid than play hide-and-seek that long."
Tycho split the grenades with Eresh, taking one of the flashbangs and one of the smokes, not really bothering to give them a look. Unrecognizable foundry? Shocker. Some things didn't require instructions to understand; it was hard to overcomplicate a bomb. He hooked their handles on his belt and spun out the cylinder on his handcannon, realizing he hadn't previously checked the thing until now. One of the flechette cartridges had a slight dent in the casing, but it didn't look deep enough to matter (he hoped).
"I got no problem with helping you get topside, but I'm about as committed as the big guy to putting a hole in this thing. We can do this." Spinning the cylinder back into place, bringing it up to rest the gun on his shoulder. "I don't think any of us would be here if we weren't capable, green or not." A reassuring glance shot Queen's way-- or at least, he hoped it was reassuring. It wasn't like he could smile.
Queen had been silent this entire time, having chosen to mentally steel herself for the coming battles. Honestly she should have been used to dark blood spattered locales such as this. The only difference between this facility and a Palace or Jail was mostly the fact that Shadows weren’t crawling around the rooms. Of course if Makoto had her friends around instead of this ragtag group of guns for hire, she’d be able to think much clearly. Hell, she had no doubt Oracle would have been able to scan the entire facility just by hacking into the security system. But Futaba wasn’t here.
So Makoto made a choice.
“I’m staying.” She announced firmly. “We don’t know what’s hiding down there. But we owe it to the innocents that lost their lives trying to contain this monster. I don’t care how threatening this creature may be! I stopped running a long time ago and I’m not going to start now.”
Queen brandished her revolver, spinning the chamber to make sure each round was loaded.
“I may not be as experienced as the rest of you, but don’t make the mistake of underestimating me.”
A scraping sound emanated from up the lift shaft, the sound of doors being forced open. Another heavy sound of metal on metal, and then it was quiet. Just the sounds of the dim emergency lighting units, a few small scraps of worn metal clattering to the top of the inactive lift.
And then a chittering could be heard. Descending the shaft.
Eresh was surprised by that sudden grit that Queen demonstrated, and he found himself nodding along for a moment. “I couldn’t have said it better. Tycho, if Jankins still wants to exfiltrate and contact outside assistance, I don’t mind waiting for you to help her get topside safely. Queen and I can hold here-“ he then paused as he heard the noises.. and he would tilt his head.
“.. Jankins, if you are going it might not be the best time to do it. On the bright side, you might get some footage to use as proof of what is going on down here.” He said as he readied his weapon.
Post by Tycho Kalhalati on May 8, 2023 4:20:04 GMT
"Yeah... okay. I'll try to be back s-" Tycho's ears twitched. What he hoped was at first just idle creaking of the base's structure made his heart run cold, the louder and more complex the noises became. Then the groaning of forced-open doors, the chittering of something unrecognizable, and one of the scent from topside he couldn't place before.
The adrenaline was already pumping, the reaction didn't take much. Hands shooting down to level his handcannon with the door, ears folding back against his head. This was it, he thought, stifling a slight tremble in his grip, taking a deep breath.
"Think it's a little late, now..." He growled, stepping to the side to take position braced by the wall. "Eyes up, chooms! Think we may have contact-"
"You have got ta be absolutely fuckin with me. no nono nonono nononono nonononononono"
Her one path of escape now clearly harboring the very thing she wanted to escape, Lemon was cornered, scrambling away from the elevator shaft she sprinted back towards the group as fast as she possibly could, a relatively short distance crossed in a flash. She continued past them a moment before realizing that up ahead was just as risky, grinding to a halt. Eyes flicking frantically around, she tried to find some place to hide, all while unshielded flashbacks flickered through her awareness. ----- Climbing into a locker, hiding from the man-eating arachnids that crawled from the vents, heart beating frantically. Screaming while desperately ripping at shapeless monstrosities with botanical tools, muffled shouts and gunfire, the smell of smoke and cooking meat. Running from the shambling forms of former crewmates, firing at them with a stolen firearm, the only light being the muzzle flash and dim glow of the emergency lights. ----- Stymied by a lack of hide-holes or lockers to dive into, she turned to shakily face the elevator shaft and stare at the others not comprehending their words.
A screech echoed down the shaft, a series of barked snarls, and then a large form came to a landing on top of the lift. It snarled, a snapping clack resonating as it stepped up the distance and entered the hallway. Two more crashing thuds behind it, purple skinned figures following their companion. The first one gave a low crackling hiss from the rostrum beak that was its mouth, its hands raised to reveal crustacean claws while the other two raised their right arms to reveal cannon barrels grafted to their forearms.
The lead bellowed what seemed to be a command, and then light began to glow inside a barrel that was grafted into its claws.
“Jankins? Jankins! What are you doing? You’re going to get shot if you keep running around like that! What has gotten ..”
Once again the psychic vision swam in front of his eyes, other senses registering the change an instant later. It passed as quickly as the first did, and once his armor Re-synced he would shake his head. “Tycho, keep eyes on the shaft, same with you Queen!” Eresh would then kneel down beside Lemon.
“Breathe, focus on the here and now. Focus on my voice. You have to center yourself. I know you are afraid, but right now you have to breathe. Otherwise, you’ll get hurt. Can I count on you to shoot whatever’s coming, Jankins? I promise that I’ll do what I can to get you through this alive.. but you’re going to have to work with me.”
When the creatures arrived.. he would look up - and felt his blood boil.
“And I need you to start shooting, now!” He said as he then took the Flash grenade he was given and primed it.
“Brace yourselves, throwing a flashbang!” And he would chuck it towards the shrieking aliens.
The motion at the lift entrance snatched Lemon's attention with a vice grip. The creatures were vaguely familiar, but she was seeing too many flashes of the other monstrosities she'd dealt with and run from to recall where she'd seen them before. The birdman coming near and kneeling barely registered as she tried to process things. She couldn't run, she couldn't hide, the only options were fight or die. She couldn't die. "-start shooting, now!" The far too familiar command broke through, and she snapped both pistols up to point in the general direction off the elevator and opened fire as fast as physically possible. She only stopped when the M6S's magazine was emptied and the plasma pistol overheated, right before her senses were assaulted with a blinding flash and heart-stopping bang.
Post by Tycho Kalhalati on May 8, 2023 10:06:08 GMT
The moment Lemon's broadcast hit Tycho's mind, he understood its source just by looking at it. Seeing the frantic look on her face, in the moments before his brain was awash with psychic static. He didn't understand the nature of her psionic nature by any means, but the Vlaka felt that fear clear as day, and it hurt his heart. Whatever those memories were of, it felt like something truly horrible. If he couldn't blame her for wanting to run before, he certainly couldn't now.
Somehow this broadcast was taken far more intensely than the first. His vision shifted from her to the creatures emerging from the elevator shaft, as he slowly shook off the memories of someone else. His ears still rang, and his vision still swam. There was a moment, looking at these horrible insectoid things, where he simply wasn't able to process the fear that would otherwise take hold... his brain still busy trying to sort out what it had just experienced.
The terror of combat was always something he'd felt in the context of either humans or robots being the enemy; the only danger he'd ever known throughout his career thus far. Whether these before him were just another unrecognizable alien race or something else entirely, that primitive instinctual part of Tycho's brain- the only part that was working right- designated them simply as "danger."
The muzzle flash and recoil of his own handcannon was what finally snapped him out of his mental daze, a shot let off before he even realized he pulled the trigger. He looked to Queen for a moment and slowly nodded, as his faculties finally became his own again. Eresh was tending to Lemon, and covering fire was theirs to give. Tycho fired off two more thundering blasts from the little handheld accelerator, trying to aim for the big one's grafted-on guns, before immediately ducking and shielding his eyes, bracing for what was bound to stagger him quite a bit...
The forward Kromus, a Batta, screeched as the flashbang grenade flared and blinded it, leaving its fellow Qymor to shake off the effects to their vision while it all but stumbled into the oncoming hail of bullets and plasma. The Batta took the brunt of the first assault, bullets impacting its chitin before being blown open as plasma bolts would impact and flash burn its carapace and allowing for the thunderous coil gun rounds that smashed off pieces of its claws.
Another series of thumps from the lift shaft as the first kromus stumbled from its injuries before collapsing. Two more batta emerged with an Urtrahgan behind them, its split jaw rattling as it hissed. The same Urtrahgan lifted its left arm, a circular energy field expanding out about a meter and a half in diameter as it moved forward and took the point position to help guard its fellow Kromus. A series of guttural barks were issued as the remaining Batta began opening fire and the Qymor moved to take aim as well. One of them grabbed the fallen Batta, still weakly alive, and held it up as a crude meat shield from oncoming fire, using the nearby wall as a brace for them both.