trans_9 | Who needs realistic goals when you have tenacity? [OPEN]

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Who needs realistic goals when you have tenacity? [OPEN]

It had literally been a day after being released from GLaDOS (oh, she was going to give that bit of AI a piece of her mind, no doubt ... ) when it started. The message from Shodan, the ship shutdowns, the robots ... one AI for another, great. Just her luck, right? But there was a problem with this situation: the medbay was under her control. Martha could sit back and allow other places to be taken (albeit with much anger and gnashing of teeth) but the medbay was not one.

So she set out with one stupid goal in mind: get into the Medbay. Yeah, thinking it out only went so far, and as smart as Martha knew she was she was also tenacious as hell. At least she could grab some supplies, maybe smaller equipment, something to help the people in need. She walked around the entire Earth in a death-zone, how hard could a trip to the Medbay be?

Currently hiding behind a convenient outcropping of the ship, listening for the disappearing metal footfalls of some robotic creature, and trying to keep her heart rate and breathing down, it would likely be much harder than she thought. Maybe she could use some help.

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Panting, Ian ran to the nearest shelter, only to find it was already occupied. Although there was room for two. One of the robot's shots had dislodged a reasonably large piece of metal and he had been using it as a shield. He held it out now, to shield them both from the robot he'd been running from, hoping the metal would withstand the shots and the robot would get bored. Or it wouldn't bother if it couldn't see them.

Once he was sure he was reasonably safe, for a minute at least, he turned to the woman next to him. "I don't suppose you have any weapons that'll kill them?" he asked hopefully, suspecting that she didn't, otherwise she'd have been shooting, not hiding.

"Weapons? No, the Doctor wouldn't let me hear the end of it."

Seriously, the man's anti-weapon stance sometimes got her into a lot more trouble than necessary. Of course it was for a good reason, and she knew it. Right now she wished it wasn't the case, as their shelter was wearing thin and the robots would be closing in.

"Just need to be creative, yeah? Think out of it."

She eyed the piece of metal.

"Throw it at them, distract them, it's worth a shot."

Ian looked at his shield. He'd grown quite attached to it and it had been quite useful. Although he'd rather throw it away than get killed. "Let's try it. I'll throw, we run in the opposite direction."

He waited until she'd acknowledged that and then counted to three. On three he threw the piece of metal at the robots and ran out from their hiding place as quietly as he could.

She legged it as fast as her legs could take her, pretty good for someone as short as her, but the Doctor had given her plenty of training. She made sure not to get ahead of Ian, however, no need to leave him to the wolves.

It looked as though the metal shield did its job, at least at first. The robot attacked it, shooting out some sort of projectile and ripping it to ribbons. It would advance towards the two of them next.

"C'mon, we're close. Just ... I don't know, weave!"

"Close to what?" He really didn't know this city as well as someone running from robots needed to.

He chanced a look back to see the robot had finished off the piece of metal and was advancing on them. The woman's suggestion was a good one and he stopped running in a straight line and went for an unpredictable pattern instead. All the same, Ian still felt the heat of the weapons fire as it just missed him.

"Medbay," she said briskly, turning a corner and nearly slipping from the force of her turn. Bloody physics. Bloody robots. Bloody everything.

She saw the familiar entranceway, and by the graces it looked clear. Could be deceiving, of course, could be a trap, could be a number of things. But she wanted to trust her eyes, and the robot was closing in on them.

Zouichi was still stalking through the buildings of the City, on the lookout for Splicer's little surprises. When he saw Martha hiding behind a building, however, he took a brief pause to communicate with her by comm ring in case she was still under pursuit.

Explosives around here. Be careful.

Martha had been so focused on the metal shapes around her that she nearly gave a yelp at the blinking of her comm ring. She managed to stifle the cry, but her heart continued to beat a mile a minute.

She read it carefully, checking on whoever was giving the message, then looked around. She saw another shape not far off, had to be the one, and typed back.

Plenty.

Zouichi darted out from around a corner, taking out two battle droids while they had their backs turned. The firing of his gravity gun was nearly soundless; he doubted it would catch the attention of any of their companions. And for the moment, it seemed as though it had not.

Plenty minus two. Are you pinned down?

Getting into the Medbay had been easy. The Doctor hadn't yet gutted his screwdriver anew before the Master had reclaimed it. He'd had the luck of arriving just before the entire ship went to hell, and Rassilon damn the Doctor if he had anything to say about this. He didn't have to live with the drums-- and the knowledge of what they were. The Doctor had ruined everything, as always.

His luck was questionable now. The Master had just located the Anetrizine stores and was happily filling his pockets with the vials when he heard something he'd thought he might never hear again. Something shrill and tinged with death. His mouth went dry, tasted of ash... but still he just managed to duck as a laser bolt exploded the cabinet behind him.

Anyone who managed to get to the medbay might stumble across the Master under one of the tables, knees drawn up to his chest, eyes squinched shut, and his hands over his ears.

After fighting off another group of those battle droids - who were fairly easy to take down, all things considered - Jamie rounded a corner and nearly found himself face to face with a very familiar old enemy. It was only by luck that it happened to be facing the opposite direction, and he took advantage of it to take off running as fast as he could, ducking into the nearest open doorway and looking for a place to hide, at least temporarily. It'd be suicidal to stay there for any length of time, not with the robots that continued to patrol the Medbay itself looking for any stragglers...one of which happened to be someone he wasn't exactly fond of.

He couldn't tell if the Master had noticed anyone else coming in, giving that he appeared to be trying to shut out the battle raging nearby. And it would be easy to just go elsewhere and leave him to his fate, but as much as Jamie disliked the man after what had happened, he couldn't bring himself to just let the robots get him because he was seemingly too afraid to move.

"Och." Despite his better judgement, he reached out to try and get the Master's attention by touching his shoulder, only barely resisting the urge to shake it. "Hey, look, ye can't stay under there. You'll get yourself killed."

Ian managed to make it to their destination without getting singed. He looked around to see he was in the medbay which was fortunately devoid of robots.

It did have two people in it, one of which he recognised. "That might be a safe place," he said. "In as much as anywhere on Stacy is safe."

Jamie seemed to have that matter in hand, so Ian started going through cupboards, looking for anything useful that could make this room a safe place to base their defence.

The drums were so loud. The drums... and the screams. The sound and smell of burning flesh, of hot metal expanding and whizzing by in the atmosphere above the planet. The Master couldn't hear anything else, and he was startled almost clear out of his skin when someone touched him. He looked up and into the eyes of...

The Master's eyes narrowed from full-on bulging panic to... slightly less so, and a good deal more irritated. Oh, for Rassilon's sake.

"Don't touch me," he hissed feverishly, his voice barely audible to himself above the racket in his head. "And yes, it's safe. Go away. Find your own spot. You're going to attract its attention." If he could get Jamie and this other human to draw the Dalek's fire back out of the Medbay, all the better.

When she raced in with Ian Martha leaned against the nearest wall and breathed deep and harsh, attempting to get something in her lungs again. It had been a while since she had to run, she forgot how tiring it was. And exhilarating. Her heart could take it though. And hey, even Jaime was here, she gave a wave and a smile.

Then gave a deep, deep frown at who else she saw. Him. The Master, though she wouldn't ever call him that. Nope, use other ways of calling him a name. 'You,
' or 'evil piece of trash.'

"What the hell are you doing here?"

It was directed at both Jaime and the Master, but the icy tone was clearly all for the latter.

Alright, if he doesn't want to be touched, Jamie won't touch him. Pulling his hand away, he gives the Master an irritated look instead. "If ye think that you'll be safe under a table when there's Daleks about, you're dafter than I thought. Especially since there were some headed in this direction."

Turning away from the man, he says to Martha, "Did they see ye and Ian come this way? If not, maybe they'll pass us by and we can slip back out. I don't fancy the idea of being trapped in here with them around."

Timing is everything. Only a few seconds later, a shrill voice could be heard echoing down the hallway - a voice that was, perhaps, all too familiar. And one most certainly not one the group in Medbay would want to hear right now.

"MEMBERS OF THE CREW HAVE BEEN SPOTTED HEADING IN THIS DIRECTION. FIND THEM."

A second voice, only slightly different sounding than the first, replied. "I OBEY."

While they sound of them moving off was too far away to be heard, given their location, it's likely only a matter of time before either or both Daleks come across their position. Waiting for them to pass and slipping out might not work here.

Ian froze for a moment, chilled at the sound of the Daleks. He had hoped never to see them again, especially here. But it was only a moment, then he was all action.

He went over to one of the beds. "Barricade the door." It might not hold them for long, but they needed anything that gave them more time. He started pulling sheets off the bed. "Put these on the ground, they can't move over them." He wasn't sure how they moved by static electricity on these surfaces, but he wasn't going to stop and ask.

The Master's sneer for Martha and Jamie slipped away as quick as anything at the shrill, unmistakably Dalek voices just outside the Medbay.

"I told you," he hissed, amazingly enough crawling even further under the table. "Now you've attracted their attention."

He jerked his head toward Ian, who actually had a semblance of the right idea. At least one of the Doctor's humans had taken notes. "Why don't you go and make yourselves useful?" the Master snapped. He'd just... keep the area under the table nice and clear.

Martha felt a deep ice creep from her stomach, through her heart, and into her throat at the sound of those voices. Voices she really, really disliked. Daleks.

The Master and Daleks. This day was just amazing, right?

"Right, door, barricade, now."

She ran to follow Ian's lead, getting whatever she could lifted and over to the door. Granted, she knew the Daleks could blast through it easily, but maybe it would give them some trouble. Of course how they were going to get out was another story ...

With mouth pulling off to one side - the only irritation he's letting himself show at the moment - Jamie decides if the Master wants to guard the table, so be it. He hurries to join the others, since they're actually bothering to do something.

Grabbing a sheet off another cot, he spreads it out on the floor nearby the ones that were already in place. Personally, he reckons the sheet would do better if it was thrown over a Dalek's eyestalk, but Ian seems confident enough that he's not going to argue. They don't have the time for it, at any rate.

With a grunt, he tilts it up so it blocks the door even further, and moves deeper into the room to bring more cots. Spotting what appears to be a small bookcase - although one that's been repurposed into holding medical supplies, he starts to clear it off in order to shift it. It's a decent size, and might give them a better barrier than just the cots.

"Hey, someone come give me a hand with this!" he calls over to the others.

Ian ran over and helped Jamie clear the contents of the bookcase. "If we can find something to cover their eye," he suggested, "then we can get hold of their gun and stop them shooting us." Getting shot by a Dalek once was enough for one lifetime.

They don't know how many Daleks they'd have to deal with, or where might be safe to get to after they've done that, but at least it's a start.

"There's a creature inside," he added, assuming that the others have never seen a Dalek before. "That's what controls it. If we can get it out, it'll be helpless." Well, helpless enough anyway.

The Daleks were wasting no time; even as the others barricaded the door it began to shake with the combined force of several metallic shells ramming against it. A few more ominous thuds and then... silence that made even the Master's skin crawl.

He crept out from beneath the table, moving as quickly and quietly as he could to the other side of the room. Surely there had to be another way out of here.

Maxine was concerned, admittedly, about Medbay, herself. She didn't work there, and she didn't know how much help she could be, but that was a pretty obvious place to try and secure. People were going to get hurt, as much as she hated to think it, and they needed to be able to help them. And Medbay was obviously going to make or break a good part of that effort.

She was totally on foot, conserving what little power she could muster for her abilities, and she saw another woman near by, whom she recognised. She sidled over, eyes darting around the hallways to make sure she wouldn't be seen. "Are you going for Medbay too?"

Martha didn't think anything else could make her jump again, but the sudden appearance of another woman proved her wrong. It was only a mild jump, though, and her heart didn't skip this time.

It took her a second to recognize the other, but when she did she let out a small sigh. Maxine, right.

"Yeah, at least trying. It's worth a shot."

"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to startle you or anything..." Maxine frowned. It probably wasn't a good thing to accidentally creep up on people, considering everything that was going on. It was really terrible...

Maxine nodded. "I don't know if I can help, but I have to try, right? If we got Medbay back then we'd have a lot of invaluable resources. And if people are hurt-- which I guess is most likely-- then the space will be good to have..."

"Exactly what I was thinking, great minds think alike right? The only problem is getting in ..."

She paused in thought, puzzling out the same problem she had been before Maxine had showed up. There were robots everywhere, and although she could outrun some of them to be sure (practice with the Doctor had made perfect), there was always the chance of running into more.

"Any bright ideas?"

Maxine smiled faintly at the 'great minds' comment, but didn't say anything (for once). She nodded. This was definitely going to be an issue.

There were a lot to face, and just the two of them. They could call for backup, but people were dealing with a lot of their own problems elsewhere, too. This wasn't going to be easy.

"I could use my powers to deflect any attacks to an extent-- but they've been severely limited. Normally I'd be able to do a lot more, maybe even clear a path completely. Maybe if-- I could make a distraction, maybe, and give you time to get try and get through? But what if some still stay behind and go after you? I couldn't let that happen."

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Who needs realistic goals when you have tenacity? [OPEN]

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IN DA MEDBAY?

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