trans_9 | Game Over, Man [Part 2]

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Game Over, Man [Part 2]

In the complex, deeper into it near the core, several of the away team were all strung up near each other, around a clutch of disgusting looking eggs. Two appeared to have already been hatched. The rest were waiting. They were bound to the walls by slime and ick, some sort of substance spit up by the creatures that may as well have been quick-dry cement.

Outside the complex, the rest of the away team had made it to the ship--only to find it damaged. Acid spit up by one of the creature had burned through part of the hull and into important inner workings. They would need someone mechanically inclined, that understood electrical work, to fix it like Jamie--uh oh.

Well, that was a problem wasn't it.

It was time for the one group to try to survive, and the other group to figure out what to do about their missing comrades.

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Tobias had demorphed, and was perched on a chair-back, knowing full well Kang was probably going to let him have it. He'd acted on instinct, mostly, just like so many times back home, trying to help any way he could. He probably could have stayed airborne through the first creature, but after that, he'd had to get down there and help.

Yuunagi bounced and settled against the empty seats as Setsuna dropped it, the closest she could come to mistreating her blade. She clenched her fists and stalked to the side of the ship to stay out of everyone else's way as they entered.

"Pathetic..." she growled. It might have been hard to tell, but that fury was directed inward. She should have been able to do more. She should have been faster to react, been fiercer in the battle. But she had been completely unable to reach her teammates. Completely unable to save them.

Stoick veritably fell into the closest seat he could find, that being next to Tobias. His arm felt strange and he could see that the shield was in pieces, the holes from the acid blood aside. He wasn't sure if he wanted to remove the shield yet or not; it would surely splinter if not dissolve if he didn't take it off soon.

And then he hung his head. He'd ignored Kang's orders in the panic of not knowing where his son was. He tried to reassure himself that Hiccup was fine--probably holed up somewhere and hiding. But it still hurt to think he'd let his son down. To top it all he'd disobeyed a direct order--his father would have had words to say. And surely, Kang would not let something like that go.

He dropped the warhammer to the floor with a solid thud, flexing his hand and letting the blood circulate once more. He hadn't realized how tightly he'd been grasping it.

Hap Suriz was busy retrieving fresh ammunition from the rear of the passenger compartment; she'd used quite a bit giving her suppressing fire as the group retreated. Only when she was done did she come back to join them.

They'd been forced into a retreat, lost people to an unknown enemy; it wasn't surprising morale was low, but she was not the best person to try to rally a bunch of miclonians... or whatever they all were.

She looked to Kang. He was the leader here, and she would only try to take initiative if he did not.

Kettch had been one of the last into the ship, and now he danced down the corridor to join the others in the main compartment to celebrate. He held the demon head high in victory as he sang. "Glowah! Yun yum di goot! Coatee cha tu too! Yub nub!"

But as he danced into the passenger compartment, he noticed that no one else was celebrating their great victory. In fact... where were all the craftsmen, the healer, and the pilot? He came to an awkward halt and looked around, blinking.

"Hey, hey? Where's everyone else?"

[ooc: Glory! It is very good! Celebrate the fight! Hooray!]

"Kettch, this is not the time to celebrate. The others got taken."

Kang was pissed.

He was pissed that he hadn't thought of anything coming through the ceiling or floor, he was pissed because of the kidnaps (more specifically, Hiccup's), and he was pissed that people had disobeyed his orders.

He wasn't military anymore, but by the lost gods, he had been assigned as the leader of this mission, and that meant that he was in charge. It wasn't the fact that he enjoyed having power over people; it was the fact that the only way everyone was going to survive these missions, let alone the entire bloody war, was with discipline.

Luckily, the ship was rather user-friendly, so it didn't take Kang too long to figure out how to at least get a damage report. Cursing in Nerakese, he barely held back from slamming his fist against the console, "The ship's been sabotaged. It has a repair system, but we won't have flight capabilities or communications for thirty minutes, at least. We're on a bit of a time crunch, too; we don't know how long those things are going to keep the kidnapped alive."

He saw something blinking in a rather urgent fashion, and began to fiddle with the controls, a low, continuous growl under his words, "Next time I give an order, you are to follow it. No questions asked." He glanced back at Tobias and Stoick with a pointed look. "Are we clear?"

Stoick met the pointed look with a sincere one. "Yes chief," he replied.

And then the words sank in.

Taken. The others were taken.
But then, that meant...

"THOR ALMIGHTY!" He turned to Kang, the leader. "Hiccup? Hiccup was taken?!" And no one had said anything to him?

< Yes, I suppose so. I was acting on instinct, really...I didn't grasp just how bad the attack was until I was in the middle of it. >

"You suppose so?" Kang hissed. "It's a yes or no question. And what the hell were you doing in there? You were supposed to be in the air."

He continued to mess with the controls, clearly agitated with the way his wings were rustling. "Yes, Hiccup was taken."

< All right, yes. And like I said, instinct...things got bad, and I thought I could provide some more firepower. I'll stay up this time, but I can only last so long flapping. Then I'm going to need to land. >

Setsuna frowned further and sat down next to her sword. In the confusion of the battle, she hadn't managed to process who had been captured at the time. But they had lost their medic, their pilot, and most of the engineers... Unforgivable.

But now they knew better what they were dealing with. And they could -- no, they would return for the rest of their team. Setsuna rested her chin on her hands, silently considering the aliens' capabilities and planning out counter-attacks. Lost in thought as she was, though, she still kept an ear open for Kang's next orders.

Kettch's ears flattened down against his head as he lowered the demon head and let it thump onto the ground.

Nevermind Elder Kang's snappish reprimand. They'd been Taken. Half their group had been snatched! He was supposed to protect them! That's why the Great Spirit had chosen him to go on this quest - chosen all of them. But they'd failed.

"Yud ehda..." He shook his head, and then shook himself all over for a second. Tossing down his half-melted spear with a clank, Kettch gripped the blaster rifle and hefted it up across his body. "The Great Spirit chose us to guard them! We cannot give up! We have to rescue them! The Night demons must die!"

[ooc: Yud ehda = alas]

"He's right. We have to go back for them. We can't--we can't just leave them there." Sokka had a white-knuckle grip on his shotgun and was even trembling slightly.

"Do we have time to contact the ship for help or do we need to go now, though? That's the real question."

Kang shook his head, "We aren't leaving them behind. And we need to come up with a plan of action quickly; we won't have time to wait for the comms to - hold on, Stacy sent us a message."

It was garbled.

||... gcksdc--Abort mission Abort Mission. ckcks Further intelligence indicates a possible flaw in my earlier intelligence. Situation is now an unknown--Electromagnetic storms---ing sensors and communications--can only hope the communications array of the dropship can receive my warnings before storm finishes rolling. I am under attack by a traitor among the crew--abort mission and wait in space around the planet until further orders. Abort mission. Abort mission. Abort mission.||

Thunder cracked overhead. It was easy to tell what had happened. One of those storms was rolling in, and Stacy had sent a message, last-ditch, hoping at least the stronger communications array would pick it up, even if their rings wouldn't.

She had tried to warn them.

||Scattered sensor readings, difficult to decipher, however, reactor core of the colony seems to be going critical. ckkcs thirty minutes. Abort mission. Abort mission.||

Oh, and the reactor was going critical in the colony.

The message cut out.

Their situation seemed to be as followed: They were stranded without a working ship, the engineer that could fix it was one of the captured, their pilot was also one of the captured, communications with the ship were down, though Stacy MIGHT send help eventually, but it was unlikely it'd be in sufficient time if a traitor was mucking about on board. They had a thirty minute deadline before the reactor went critical, and possibly even less time given that they didn't know what the aliens were doing with the captured...

They had thirty minutes to save the others. Possibly less.

They were on their own.

That message was the last straw for Stoick. He could take the possibility his son was captured. He could even withstand the idea that going back would be difficult--but that they would be going back. But to abort the mission?! Not until the day of Ragnarok!

"I will not abandon my son or the other engineers down there!"

His massive hands were clenched into fists in his agitation. "Hiccup and the other engineers need us now. If we know which direction they came from in the tunnel, then all we have to do is follow it back to its source."

If it worked with dragons, there was no reason it couldn't work with these creatures.

Reactor critical. Perfect. Now they were on a deadline even if they could recover any survivors. At least there was that certain clarity of purpose that came with only having one option...

"If we're the ones who take the initiative keep moving it will be harder for them to surround us again," Suriz told the others. She was trying to get them thinking proactively more than anything; their enemy appeared to have a significant advantage on them in a tunnel environment and there was no guarantee they could even find the others in such a short time, let alone make it back and repair the ship. 'Die trying' seemed the most likely outcome.

But she would rather try than not.

Setsuna jerked in her seat, sitting up straight as Stacy's message came through. A traitor among the crew? The ship was in danger now. Konoka was in danger. It was up to them to rescue their teammates and get off this planet safely, and they had to do it now.

"Agreed," she said aloud, after Suriz's suggestion. "We are at a disadvantage, moving into their territory, but at the same time we have an understanding of their capabilities now. If we strike hard and fast, they should not have the chance to surprise us again."

While the others spoke, Kettch had picked up the demon head and put it to the side before rejoining he conversation. He flattened his ears back as he listened.

"...going critical does not sound good." He shook his head and gripped his blaster rifle. "We need to move fast." He stepped forward. "I have hunted many times. I know how to track the beasts of the forest. ...I will ask if the spirits of this world will help us."

Of course. Nothing was ever easy for Kang. By the laws of average, all the difficult and even impossible situations he'd been in before, he should have failed many times over. Hell, this might be his last.

No.

He refused. He'd gotten through the other times before, and gotten his men through, and by the lost gods, they were going to get through this one, too. Giving up was not an option, and not just because they needed Jamie and Reimi to get off of the planet.

At least these caves weren't likely to have fire dragons in them. He shoved that thought out of his head.

"Kettch and I have the best senses in the dark. I don't know if these things are visible on infrared, but I can still see more clearly than most of you in low-light conditions. Tobias, do you have any morphs with good eyes?" Kang asked, the tip of his tail moving absently in thought as he grabbed the map of the tunnels and looked over it. "There's a large chamber close to the power core. That's probably our best bet."

< Not good eyes. Good sonar. I can go bat. > he replied. He wouldn't morph until he had to, to give himself as much of the two hours as possible.

Stoick relaxed slightly seeing Kang was going to do something about those left behind.

If they could get better senses in the dark then that would help a lot. He stood up, anxious to get moving, though he said nothing.

Setsuna too was ready to move. As Kang began to plan their assault, she briefly unsheathed her sword to survey the damage. She'd stopped using Yuunagi as soon as that acid blood had been revealed, switching over to the summoned short swords of Sica Shishikushiro, but that one splash had still caused some nasty corrosion. She would have to seek out some sort of weaponsmith to repair the damage, once everything was done and they had all returned to the ship. (And they would; she would make sure of that.) And she would have to leave the blade behind now, to prevent further damage. She would have to rely on her Pactio artifacts once again.

"If you wish, I can also send my construct in ahead of us to scout," Setsuna proposed, pulling out the little paper doll she'd shown off before everything had fallen apart. "It is not precisely suited to low-light, but it should suffice. Either way, I am ready to move out at any time." With that she gave a firm nod and waited for the order.

Edited 2010-08-29 04:48 (UTC)

"Yub yub!" Kettch hefted his blaster rifle enthusiastically and stepped forward, up to Stoick. "We'll find them! The spirits will help us find your son, warrior Stoick! You'll have my eyes and ears." He put a hand on the hilt of his knife in it's sheathe hanging from his plantsuit-material belt, "And my knife!"

Only one course of action, and now she had specific orders on how to carry it out. What more did a Zentraedi need?

Well, besides her weapons, of course. Hap Suriz hoisted her grenade launcher and moved to the shuttle entrance. With the engineers no longer close at hand she intended to get some good use out of it.

"Understood," she acknowledged Kang.

Game Over, Man [Part 2]

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