trans_9 | Queen to Bishop [Part 3]

Could they even work their way that far in? When the facility's lights were on the blink from the shielding being down and the electromagnetic storm wreaking havoc?

Fighting aliens tough enough, but part of this fight was going to take place in the dark, which would only be lit by the discharge of their weapons.

They hadn't even gotten very far into the complex yet.

Kang had been hoping that the lights would stay on, but those hopes got dashed relatively quickly. Muttering a curse under his breath in Nerakese, he kept his voice calm, "Tobias. Go bat. Keep us updated on anything you find. Setsuna, send out your constructs. Kettch, cover our rear."

This was going to be problematic. He knew humans had crappy night vision, and couldn't see at all in the dark; they were sure to stumble and run into walls.

Stoick squinted into the darkness; but fighting in the dark and fighting at night were two completely different things. He felt blind though he figured his eyes would adjust eventually.

He reached out one hand to the wall to ensure that he kept a steady path, while listening for the sounds of the people around him to ensure he was keeping with the group. Falling behind was not an option. Least of all when he was so close to his son. He offered up a silent prayer that his son would be okay.

"Any sign of movement yet?" He called softly.

"Understood!" Setsuna held up the little paper doll, and with a puff of smoke, it transformed into a tiny adorable version of her (http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/62020671/12992572). She pointed forward, and the construct floated away, disappearing into the darkness ahead of the group.

Setsuna's night vision wasn't exceptional, but it would suffice. Her eyes were gradually beginning to adjust, and so was the vision coming through her connection to Chibi-Setsuna. "Nothing that I can see yet," she said in response to Stoick. Her hand tightened around the handle of her plasma saw.

"Acha! Acha." Kettch took up position covering their backtrail. His nightvision was definitely better than a human's, but with so little light in these tunnels, it was still hard to see very far.

At the first intersection, Kettch paused a moment to take out his dagger and scratch marks into the wall to show the passage they'd come from. However, he flattened his ears back at the squealing ching-sound the metal blade on the metal walls made. He glared into the darkness down the tunnel, then huffed in dissatisfaction before roughly sticking his knife back into it's sheathe on his belt.

That much noise could warn the demons they were coming...

"Hey, hey? You have a... map, to find our way back out, yes?" Kettch called up toward Elder Kang.

Hap Suriz was staying up front, the mysterious mini-Setsuna aside, so that she'd have a chance to soften up any approaching enemies before the melee types got stuck in and blocked her shots, but when the darkness closed in most of that rationale vanished. Her helmet had basic light amplification but the equipment didn't seem to be working very well in the electrical storm and the homogeneously grainy wall of 'enhanced vision' the display was giving her wasn't much better than just being plain old blind.

"Helmet isn't working. Visibility's poor," she reported to the others matter-of-factly. She'd have plenty of light once the shooting started... if she was still alive by the time she realized they were under attack.

Tobias shifted, but his shape did not change greatly. He now had leathery wings with short,almost invisible hairs covering them and three small claws were on each one. He could see nothing now, but every time he sent out a sonar click, he might have well as been in daylight. The return painted a vivid picture in his mind. His regular bursts of sound could be heard somewhat softly against the tunnel walls.

They were being followed.

And cut off.

The first thing Kang would see was a flash off a tail in the dark, arcing towards him.

Kang barely saw the tail in time, and he ducked, "THEY'RE HERE."

Hissing, he almost reached for his sword before remembering about the acid blood, and pointed his gun at the thing, pulling the trigger; the recoil took him by surprise, but he gritted his teeth and dug his feet into the ground to steady himself.

The lights flickered on for about two seconds, revealing where the enemy was, then went out again.

Stoick pushed himself away from the wall as the lights flickered, seizing his opportunity to attack. Better that than to wait for them to come to him. He swung his axe, missing the intended target, but causing the folded portion to pop out. The edge glowed blue and he quickly readjusted so that glowing blue would be the part that would land first on the aliens.

"Bring it on," Stoick muttered, his glowing axe ready to shed blood. Acid blood or not, he was going to take a few of these creatures down.

Bringing up the rear, for the past few minutes Kettch had had the distinct feeling of being watched. The same feeling right before a predator strikes.

He gripped his blaster rifle tightly as he walked sideways, keeping an eye back the way they came. However, Kang's shout jerked his attention around to the front of the group. It was almost his undoing.

As he turned toward the front, he caught movement out of the corner of his eye, down the hall at the last corner they'd passed. His instincts screamed at him and the spirits of the Hunt cried out to him of danger!

Kettch whipped back around, bringing the blaster rifle up and pulling the trigger without thinking. The bright red blaster bolts lit up the dark hallway, revealing a demon rushing forward along the ceiling. Despite having fired near-blindly, Kettch's shots were aimed unerringly at the demon.

"Demons! Dengar!"

[ooc: dengar = attack]

Ground combat was so unlike space. No sensors picking up enemy heat signatures from minutes outside combat range, or more if there was strong ECM on the field. None of that strange feeling of approach maneuvering, already in combat and jockeying for favorable position but unable to fire a shot. Just half a second between controlled tension and utter chaos. She didn't even see the attack that almost took Kang, had only just begun to process his shout when the first light of weapons fire brought the attackers into view and made it irrelevant.

She started pulling the nearest available trigger.

The sophisticated smart grenades in Hap Suriz's launcher were another casualty of the electric storms but they at least still managed to go off when fired and a pair of the little explosives arced down the corridor and burst. One hand swung the weapon back while another drew her pistol and started firing at the closest beast, the one that had attacked Kang.

Stopgap measures. She needed the carbine.

Tobias felt a bit helpless in his bat morph. He was thought-speak shouting as to where the aliens were, but he couldn't join in the attack. He did dive bomb the creatures once or twice, but that was the extent of it.

The creature Kang shot at flew backward, the titanium spike pinning it to the wall; it struggled to free itself even as the bullets from Suriz's gun hit it, before twitching a few times and slumping, dead.

The brief flash of light had momentarily disoriented the bozak, who's eyes had adjusted to the dark, so Tobias's instruction was greatly appreciated. Growling, he shot at another one, missed, and when it got too close, he dropped the weapon to grab his battle-axe and behead it. Acid ate at the blade, making him curse; he was going to have to get it repaired later.

Again, the lights flickered and went out.

"Keep moving forward."

Stoick pressed forward, using Tobias' directions as guidance for where to strike. He laid about him with the lazer pick, slicing through one alien's anatomy with relative ease. The spray of acid blood he avoided in part thanks to his heavy fur coat, and the rest in momentum carrying him onward. The glowing pick blade probably wouldn't last long with the acid blood eating at it, but he didn't intend to be stuck here.

Get in, find Hiccup--and the others--and get out. That was the only thing running through his mind as he pressed forward, heeding Kang's commands while careful not to get in way of the blasts his teammates were firing.

Sokka did his best to follow the mentally transmitted directions, firing blindly into the darkness with his shotgun, the roar and flash of the weapon filling the corridor. He was cursing, loudly, in his native language. Things that probably would make his sister blush and make Aang gape. But this was life and death and they weren't here, thank whatever deities that might exist. They weren't here in the dark with creatures out of nightmare surrounding them and charging them from every turn.

When Kang's spike cannon slammed the creature back Suriz finally found a spare second to get the carbine free and she opened up with the powerful direct-fire weapon. The rapid-fire bolts lit the corridor with continuous strobing flashes, allowing her to accurately target the aliens ahead, and she followed her own shots, advancing on Kang's orders despite the risk of closing with the creatures. He was right, they needed to keep moving; she knew well enough what happened to forces that got pinned down in enemy territory. Especially when enemy territory was also a giant time bomb. Thankfully the white-hot projectiles also cauterized the wounds they caused on the aliens, limiting the amount of acid blood the corpses would leave in their path.

They did definately need to keep going. Tobias was overhead, out of the range of most of the acid that did splatter, but he still had to be cautious. The stuff would be a disaster if it hit his wing membranes. He was beginning to realize an importance in his position, even though he could not physically fight.

Xenomorphs were popping up in front of them and behind them. Could they manage to keep moving or would they wind up slogged down and trapped?

"Incoming!" exclaimed Reimi as she drew several arrows and concentrated. Energy poured off her weapon and she loosed a barrage of spinning arrows at the Xenomorphs in front with rapid fire precision. This wasn't her off guard anymore, it was an angry woman in protective mode.

The situation in the rear of the group was much the same.

"Same here!" Rose growled; it seemed they were trapped. She continued firing, trying to keep the aliens back far enough that they wouldn’t have to worry about any flailing tails or claws.

"Any ideas?"

"Not unless you wanna try the ceiling or the floor," Jamie spat out, words coming in a rush as he hefted his rivet gun and opened fire into the mass approaching from the rear. He couldn't panic, not now, not when it was just him in his headspace. He couldn't and he damn well wouldn't.

He hoped.

"We just have to try to keep moving!" she hollered over the sound of the plasma saw firing up, the glowing blade giving her enough light to see by as she moved to the front lines, slicing anything that dared come close to her apart.

An alien scrabbled behind a vent in the side of the hallway and Hiccup shot flames through the vent before it could even pop through. The screeching died down rather quickly.

"I have an idea. Maybe."

He cranked the flamethrower to the highest setting.

"We switch off. Projectile weapons and flameflinger up front, concentrating fire at the same time to clear the way. Everyone else holds the rear just long enough for us to do it before we switch back. We could clear the hallway in one go that way."

Y or N, people? Worth a shot?

"Sounds good to me," said Reimi as she took up a position. Power sang from the end of her arrowhead. "Here they come!"

"Sonic Thorn!" exclaimed Reimi as her arrowhead burst into light and she fired a arrow, the projectile screaming forward with light spiraling off of it, hoping to drive or pierce the opponents.

Rose saw one slight snag with that plan: of the five, there was only one close-range weapon among them and that was being wielded by their only medic.

She paused her fire only to check her plasma cutter, extra ammo close at hand. “I’ll cover you, Scarlet, just in case.”

She decided the targeting system on the plasma cutter was the greatest thing since sliced bread; it made aiming on the fly easy. And whether this plan worked or not, they would no doubt be legging it.

Jamie licked his lips nervously and flung a glance over his shoulder at Hiccup, then darted to flank him. "Might as well give it a shot," he murmured, rivet gun primed.

Dammit, he couldn't think in these situations, couldn't focus on anything beyond getting the hell away. Had he not been thus distracted the notion would have been distressing, but he didn't have the concentration to spare dwelling on it.

Scarlet had been just about to voice the objection of being the only one holding down the rear when Rose spoke up, and that eased her mind considerably.

"Sounds good," she replied, turning to fall back to hold off the creatures with Rose, giving the younger woman a slightly strained smile as she moved in. At least the plasma blade seemed to be doing a damn good job of making things fall over and not get back up.

With the flamethrower cranked up to full he was going to burn through a lot of fuel, but they needed to clear the way. He'd just have to conserve carefully after that.

"Annnd..." He rushed to the front and so he was lower then the others, so the flames shot out at leg level at the creatures.

"FIRE!" Literally, in his case. A massive flame arced out from the flamethrower, causing any creature it hit to char and sizzle.

Reimi nodded as she loaded three more arrows, firing them as a volley and striking the enemies as they came. One, two, three. Each shot precise, quick and fast. Vulnerable parts were being struck as far as Reimi could tell, and she allowed light to pour off her body. "Blindside," she whispered before shooting up into the air as high as she dared before springing off the side.

"Seraphic Thunder!" boomed Reimi in mid air as beams of crackling chi forged lightning lanced down where her arrows struck.

It wasn’t long before Rose had to dump an emptied cartridge and replaced it with a full one. How many had that been? Maybe a couple of dozen shots per magazine. She could work with that.

She went back to firing as quickly as possible, trying to make sure Scarlet didn’t get overwhelmed by the bugs.

She noticed the burst of light and wave of heat that signaled the start of Hiccup’s plan. “How’s it coming?”

If Jamie heard Rose's question he was too distracted to answer intelligibly. Teeth clenched painfully tight, he was unloading short bursts of rivet-fire at monster after monster, pausing only when one target was down to pick out a new one. The only way he was keeping from flipping out altogether was by trying to keep track of his ammo - and even that was scant comfort, considering that he was steadily counting down to the point where his primary mode of protection would be completely useless except as a blunt weapon.

Scarlet was a little too focused on the creatures to really ask or care about what was going on behind her until someone said the word. She sliced off limbs and appendages and whatever-the-hell-else these things had, anything that came near her was going. She was not dying in this pit.

Even with all her focus though, she was a doctor and only had the basic heavy artillery training. She couldn't go at this pace for too long, and it was evident when a tail made it past the plasma saw as she was bringing it down on the head of another creature, striking her across the face and nearly knocking her off balance, although she was able to swing around with a grunt and saw the offending appendage off, ignoring for the moment the sting of torn flesh.

"If we could hurry that would be great!" Okay so she cared a little about what was going on behind her.

"And...we're clear!"

That had cut through the aliens in front. "Jamie switch to the back again and let's move! Keep moving!"

"Covering the front," barked Reimi as she hurried forward, side-stepping around a tall fixture and making sure there weren't any more surprises. "How's the back holding up?"

“We’re all in one piece.” Rose risked a glance at Scarlet. “More or less.”

As soon as they had some breathing room--she preferred not getting tackled by an angry alien as soon as she turned her back--she started moving towards the others with frequent glances over her shoulder.

The onslaught having died down for the moment, Jamie lowered the rivet gun slightly, though his grip on it never slackened. "Let's move while we can, then," he muttered, nervously scanning the hallway for signs of incoming threats.

Just as Kang's group reaches a set of elevators they need to go down to get to the others, They'll see that one is rising up towards their level.

Rising, floor by floor towards them--who knew what was inside. Were the creatures smart enough to use manmade things like that?

Ding. The doors open.

Rose placed herself between the doors and the others and leveled her plasma cutter at the general height of alien torso. She tensed as the doors slid open, waiting for the moment that the targeting reticule hit black exoskeleton.

All that's waiting for her is the glowing barrel of Hap Suriz's carbine. Not what you want to find behind Door #1 most days, but when the other option is a horde of xenomorphs it's probably downright welcoming.

Assuming no one has a twitchy trigger finger, at least.

"Don't shoot! It's us! It's us!"

The flamethrower was lowered.

Hearing Hiccup's voice, Kettch half turned away from covering the hallway behind them and glanced between Kang's legs to get a look at the inside of the lift up ahead. Then he threw up his hands and did a little dance, shaking his blaster rifle above his head.

"Yubnub! You're zeekee! Yupyup! The Light Spirit protects us from the demons of the Dark!"

[ooc: yubnub = hooray, zeekee = safe, yupyup = rejoice]

Kang breathed a sigh of relief, lowering his gun, and grinned, "It's good to see you. Now let's get the hell out of here before those things show up again and the power core blows us all up."

"Thor be praised," Stoick murmured to himself upon hearing Hiccup's voice. A small knot loosened behind his shoulders in relief.

Now that they were back together as a group they could focus on the real issue of getting out of this gods-forsaken place. And if he sidled a bit closer to Hiccup, it was only to make sure that his son was more or less in one piece--and not because he wanted to prevent a repeat situation by acting as his son's bodyguard.

"Dad!"

Hello, Stoick, have a somewhat slimy hug, and then he was following Kang's orders and trotting along. The talking came out of him in a low, quiet, but wordy burst.

"I knew you guys would come for us, but we lucked out and Jamie was able to free himself and the rest of us. Then we found weapons. I have a thingy that throws flames."

Yes, he found this flameflinger thing exciting.

Check that babbling, Stoick. Your boy was okay.

Edited 2010-09-04 18:44 (UTC)

They had gotten back to the ship safely, but now they had to worry about repairs and getting the damn thing up in the air and through the storm? Could they do it in time?

Queen to Bishop [Part 3]

Rescuers - Rescue Away

Re: Rescuers - Rescue Away

Re: Rescuers - Rescue Away

Re: Rescuers - Rescue Away

Re: Rescuers - Rescue Away

Re: Rescuers - Rescue Away

Re: Rescuers - Rescue Away

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Rescuees - Save Yourselves

Re: Rescuees - Save Yourselves

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Meeting in the Middle

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Through the Storm