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Post by Resident Demonolater on Aug 3, 2018 19:14:54 GMT -6
As Harkov was beginning to come down, Behzad was going up - literally, and figuratively. He picked himself up off the floor, damn near springing with the vigour of a twenty year old in the process as his Auto-Injector administered the last of its second does. His leg made an unsettling pop in the process, but he couldn't feel now - couldn't feel anything except a dull, throbbing anger. It was his first kill since imprisonment, not much of a big deal for the average soldier, but Lance Gunners were special for a reason.
He cast his gaze downwards immediately to take one last look at "Clem." Even in Behzad's weakened state the poor fucker was no match for an Amerikano; thick streaks of blood, and grey matter painted the hall floor now from their brief struggle. Fuckin' beauty right there, wish I had a camera..
"Good job Rambo.."
"Well now.." He gasped, gripping the PPSH so tight the metal groaned. "Didn't figure you for the come rushing in sort, Blue." Behzad swiveled to face her, or at least the direction he was pretty sure her voice came from through all the chaos, and ear ringing. "What can I say, do or die motherfucker. Le-"
bbbbbbpppppptttttttt
A fresh hail off bullets added itself to the ongoing cacophony, drowning him out. On instinct he hit the deck, and reached towards Harkov with one hand to try and yank her down with him, either way though he was hitting the deck. His other was used to operate the SMG, muzzle leveled straight down the hall, the cocktail of painkillers, and aggression enhancements leaving him eager to mow the bastards down. But no one came, and instead a much more troubling development stared them in the face.
Disruptor fire, two blinding green bolts streaked past the mouth of the hallway, giving just enough of a pale flicker to highlight the brains he was stomach-down in. Behzad knew that sight, sound, and more importantly smell all too well, having "served along side" the Empire's forces from time to time. "Fucking Aschen?" He hissed, mindful to say at a whisper. "Here? No, no this whole fucking thing is, was! A Lance operation..The Colonel would never let any of those goat fuckers.." A second guard screamed, and by the increasing lack of ozone the soldier didn't have to guess as to why.
"Fall back!" shouted a panicked guard, Behzad unable to get a feel of the man's position over the din. "Fall back! We need to alert the Captain!"
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Post by Circe on Aug 4, 2018 17:17:44 GMT -6
Harkov looked at Bezhad with exasperation and thinly veiled anger. Still trapped down in the bowels of the Cenote, under fire, and stuck wasn’t Harkov’s plan. Ideally, she would liked to leave her current partner behind in the cell, while she went and retrieved the medical kits. Unfortunately for Rei, the man had had other ideas and had acted before the other really even knew what was going on. Partly, she blamed whatever weird selection of drugs that they’d pumped her system full of; the other half she blamed on whatever thoughts were going through the man’s head. “And your point is?” She asked bluntly as they suddenly found themselves pinned down by more gun fire.
“And this just keeps getting better…” Harkov grumbled as she hit the concrete for a second time. The first she hadn’t been aware of, drugged up and unconscious from the products that Yuri and his men had put into her system.
“Don’t ask me!” Harkov hissed back, unsure what the Aschen would even want with the planet. It was a veritable hell hole, and hardly the sort of thing the Empire was willing to deal with. As long as the locals were squabbling amongst themselves, the Empire seemed content to let it be. Though, that didn’t stop some more passionate individuals from attempting to assassinate the planetary governor once or twice.
“I left that fucking psychotic IIA bitch back in the Rim!” She added as she looked back over her shoulder. Unarmed, pinned down, and without aid, Rei tried to remember if there had been worst situations; and there hadn’t. Between the Aschen and whatever was at the other end of the hall, she was more willing to take her chances with whatever had caused the fire.
"I say we take our chances with the fire bug."
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Post by littlekreen on Aug 4, 2018 21:39:46 GMT -6
Sprinkles heard someone calling for help in a plaintive tone but also heard gunfire and other weapons further down the hallway. Faced with an oncoming high that wouldn't last to accomplish both and peaks that diminished each time they hit in this rapidly anoxic atmosphere. The voice didn't sound like Harkov though it remained urgent. In the end Despite her angry bid for freedom she couldn't let another defiled false Matriarch burn to death in this place. Especially after she'd started this fire.
Sprinkles raised the gurney once on its end to her shoulder instead. Four arms growing quite strong from three hearts now beating hard she hucked it down the hallway overhand. A dark reflective rectangle sails over Bezhad's head with a creak metal clatter at dangerous speed. A loud crack of bone emerged with metal screeching protesting a sudden stop of the gurney slamming into something further on.
An angular pink shape with three wings and a wing spine walked into view of the window still blurred by smoke. The triangular shape its head with two large antennae toward movement behind the small barred window. Two ovals shone reflectance in noise as she moved closer to the hardware easier to see from this side and saying nothing. Far easier to see the pink insectoid creature now she said nothing with a periodic glance though the mandibles idly moved with cleaning motions focused on her jaw.
Two upper arms were hands and two lower thinner conical gripping arms covered in dense spines of setae. The lower arms bent to grip a panel beside the door much easier to see when on the other side. The top hands balled a fist as muscles partly hydraulic and tensor collapsed the grating smashing a hydraulic tube underneath. Viscous fluid sprayed as Sprinkles moved to the door two limbs gripping the outside. Blood sacs tensed as a lockdown bolt in the gears screamed then died with an explosion from a weakened return line. Pink fingers squeeze under the door as Sprinkles expands as much effort as she still has to force it up enough to crawl through underneath.
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Post by demikara on Aug 5, 2018 11:14:40 GMT -6
Oh hey, that worked out swell. Cassie dropped to her belly and shimmied out from the cell, then sent a beaming smile up to the pink bug thing. "Thanks! Oh hey, we match!" She tugged on one of her shaggy locks to demonstrate what she meant. they were both pink! That was pretty cool. The pirate looked the other being over and beamed brightly up at it. Her? It. She'd figure out gender another time. There were more pressing things right now, such as fire and what definitely sounded like gunfire.
"Hey, let's get out of here. And if we can loot a gun off a guard or two, then we can both be armed. Getting out I think is probably the priority, right?" Of course, they'd likely run into the guards on their way out, but that was a thing. It happened, and so long as she could take them by surprise, she was really not worried about taking them down. A good chokehold would knock anyone unconscious, and she could finish it off with a bullet.
Then again, give the distinct cries of pain and moans of agony farther down the hallway, she was pretty sure they already had access to at least one gun. Good. One less person to choke into submission, and given her meager height, that was probably a good thing. at 4' 11, getting her arms around someone's throat could be tricky. Hands, yes, easy. Arms? Eh. "I vote we go towards the gunfire." She started humming cheerfully and damn near skipping as she suited actions to words and did just that.
Time to kill some guards, which really would be kind of cathartic now that she thought about it. Between that and the fire, this would be fun! So long as they acted quickly, because fire could spread fast.
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Post by Fife on Aug 6, 2018 21:11:34 GMT -6
Immediately following Marlene's assault on the guards, there was an ominous silence, interrupted only by the sound of roaring flames that were surely beginning to spread.
The opening to the hallway revealed one slender leg, wrapped carefully in synthetic BDU Fabric, kydex, and kevlar straps holding a rather imposing bowie knife, bandoleer of fusion cells, and a disruptor pistol.
That lone slender leg stepped carefully over the charred remains of one of the facility's many guards, and the obviously feminine figure came to a stop in the center of the hallway, four green, glowing eyes obscuring her face from the wide spectrum goggles the woman was wearing, and the large black respirator covering her mouth. The only thing that could be seen amidst all the equipment, was blonde hair pulled into a tight ponytail under the wide spectrum goggles.
Everything else the woman was wearing was solid black, including the ballistic vest carrying her grenades, antimatter charges, and fusion cells.
Standing square to the hallway, the woman grasped her disruptor PDW, and there was an audible metallic 'plink' that emanated from the weapon.
A glowing red fusion cell was ejected, and it arced wide across the hall, clattering on the concrete floor, while the woman slammed a fresh fusion cell into the top of the disruptor PDW, a shrill whine echoed from the weapon as she stared down the hallway at the prisoners, the disruptor pointed lazily in their direction.
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Post by Resident Demonolater on Aug 12, 2018 17:55:37 GMT -6
Harkov's complaints fell on largely deaf, metaphorical and nearly literally, ears. The amount of gunfire in the enclosed concrete space was brutal, the haphazard acoustics doing nothing but amplifying each break of the sound barrier. Everything but Behzad's own racing heartbeat had become a dull thrum by now, not that he had the wherewithal to notice. The suite of specially selected narcotics that finally graced his haggard body once more made such minor things irrelevant. He did however catch those dreaded three letters.
IIA.
"Are you fuckin' kidding me, Blue?" Possessed with a renewed sense of urgency the Lance Gunner acted quick, crawling on his shattered chest towards the body of the second guard he'd downed. Every inch felt like a sea of glass, and on several occasions errant ricocheting bullets hit far too close for comfort. By the time he actually reached the corpse he sported two fresh gunshot wounds on his back, and another deluge of combat enhancers through his endocrine. All topped off with a heap of pure rage.
"Make yourself useful," he barked, barely audible over the chaos. "If a goddamn spook is he-"
Marlene's sudden apperence at the end of their little hallway drew him up short. Illuminated by muzzle flashes, and sporting an exosuit even his damaged eyes couldn't mistake, there wasn't really any guesswork as to what was inside it.
Scrambling to avoid an inevitable trip to an Aurora Chair, Behzad preied the PPSH-42 out of Jesus' cold, dead hands. Without even bothering to set the safety he tossed it back towards his cellie. She'd be fine. Probably. He proceeded to give the corpse a patdown, hoping against hope to find anything useful.
"Hell yeah!" Luck was finally on their side, the idiot rebel had been carrying a grenade. Just a simple fragmentation, something Behzad new wouldn't do more than annoy the kind of shit the Aschen needed to keep their frail little bodies safe. But it sure would disrupt both sides of the battle raging just beyond. Quite possibly enough of one to give them the breathing room they needed to link up with the bug...thing. Behzad didn't even want to think about what it was, but it seemed to hate Yuri's little cadre as much as he did, and that was good enough.
Calling over his shoulder Behzad pulled the pin, starting a percise mental countdown. "One tango, mouth of the hall. Looks like your Aschen buddy to me. Stay low, and get ready to hump it!"
One-one-thousand, two-one-thousand, three-one-thou-
With a grunt Behzad chucked the tiny explosive down the dark hall, right towards the leg the newcomer had wrapped around the wall. If his count was right it'd explode a mere second after hitting the ground contact, if not they'd probably be running headlong into a pissed off IIA agent.
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Post by Fife on Aug 12, 2018 19:55:01 GMT -6
While it wasn't evident under the wide spectrum goggles she was wearing, her eyes seemed to shimmer as the grenade came sailing down the hallway. It hit the floor but, where everyone was expecting a deafening detonation, a simple pop, and fizzle could only be heard.
"That wasn't very nice." The figure said in a warped voice, four glowing green eyes staring at Behzad.
She took several steps down the hallway, making sure to avoid stepping on corpses along the way, slowly, she raised the disruptor PDW towards Behzad, then brought her attention further down the hallway.
There was an audible hiss as Marlene pulled the respirator away from her face, along with the wide spectrum visor, and once she pulled everything away, Behzad would find a young woman, with shimmering blue eyes and blonde hair.
She stepped over him, and extended a hand.
"Come with me, if you want to live."
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Post by Circe on Aug 13, 2018 16:30:09 GMT -6
Harkov caught the gun that Bezhad threw her, trying to avoid depressing the firing stud or anything else that would cause more problems. "A frag grenade? Are you FUCKING insane?!” She yelled as her stomach churned, queasy with the potential for this next disaster. Between the crumbling concrete walls, and the confined space they'd be lucky to get out without further injury from the blast. "That blast if it doesn't kill us will, they will!"
But, when the grenade failed to go off, Rei found herself squinting down the tunnel from her crouched position. “Oh.. shit..” She muttered as she scrambled to her feet, boots slipping as she struggled for purchase against the wet floor. The shoes had been designed for shipboard wear, not tramping through a Cenote. In fact the entire environment inside the Cenote was hot, humid, reeking of decayed plant matter and dead bodies. It was one that Harkov wasn't keen on reacquainting herself with anytime soon.
In the mean time she was hoping that the other was temporarily more interested in Bezhad than her. ‘You idiot, you just made this ten times worse.’ She thought to herself as the glowing green eyes made their way down the corridor towards them. Harkov shuddered slightly as she remembered the last time she'd run into the woman, it hadn't ended well for one of them; Rei specifically.
“And you think stalking people like a fucking psycho is?!” Rei said to Marlene, the words out of her mouth before she could even think. Sometimes she swore that that would be the end of her, and it might this time for all she knew. The IIA had obviously or somehow cleared this little excursion into the Cenote on Sky’s Edge, and how Harkov didn’t really care.
Either way, she was seriously considered bailing on Bezhad and taking her chances. It was better than whatever sort of torture awaited her at the hands of the woman standing and at least there wouldn't be any sudden movements.
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Post by littlekreen on Aug 14, 2018 17:00:28 GMT -6
Sprinkles nodded at Cassie giving a thumbs up with one hand. Gesturing at her throat with the other she made a side to side motion to try and communicate she hadn't a voice. Sprinkles hobbled closer taking Cassie's lead but diverged to the rifle she'd left behind. It still had a full clip as she hadn't met anyone on the way but her hearts were slowly stopping she'd soon not be able to use it. Landed on her knees hard A cling-arm grabs the rifle stands up hobbling as fast as she still had blood. Just enough to catch up Sprinkles poked Cassie in the arm with the flat stock then stopped against the wall. Held by the barrel if Cassie turned around Sprinkles would offer it to her. Cling arm grabbing concrete wall as best it could to keep her going forward. A hand patted near the diamond shaped hole and gestured thunks against her carapace. *taptap... taptab... taptap*
Sprinkles looked up as she heard Rei yell out trying not to collapse while heavy movements of leg pushed her forward. If catching Cassie's eye would point at the noise and give a thumbs up.
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Post by demikara on Aug 15, 2018 7:45:26 GMT -6
Cassie paused and grinned. "Can't talk? That's okay, I'll talk enough for the both of us!" She accepted the rifle, pleased. Her new bud wanted to head towards the noise? Cassie could get behind that. Still, it seemed the other pink person here was having troubles walking. Cassie considered things a moment and then nodded. "If you need to use me as a crutch, I understand." She said simply. The other did have a hole in her, and looked a little ragged overall. Cassie may be bruised up, but they had, apparently, been comparatively gentle with her.
Either way, she proceeded forward, though slower than she had been going, for the other's sake. She kept the rifle at the ready, more than ready enough to deal with someone in a uniform, especially if her new companion didn't know them. Of course, she wasn't one hundred percent certain how she'd know if her new companion would know them, but the other seemed able to communicate well enough. They'd manage. What they'd do once they were out of her, she didn't know. Without her ship, she didn't have a way off this rock, wherever this rock was. Her head still ached without her ship and she desperately wanted more processing power. Being here, them destroying her ship, well, it had reminded exactly how little processing power people had, comparatively. And she had great heaping holes in her own knowledge banks right now. The headache, the constant headache, didn't help.
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Post by Resident Demonolater on Aug 16, 2018 17:43:26 GMT -6
When the grenade failed to detonate, the inherent danger of an explosive inside a crumbling, confined space be damned, Behzad's heart dropped. Still prone, he didn't even bother to get up as the woman approached - what good would it do? What you get for trusting trash Skye's munitions. His grip on the rifle became hard enough to bend the stock as she kept drawing closer, the odds of any possible actions racing through his mind. None of them managed to break the "snowball in hell" bracket. He was fucked.
Correction, they were fucked.
When she offered a hand however, and a cheesy one-liner to boot, the surprise in his filth caked face was genuine. Of course Harkov shooting her mouth off wiped it away just as quickly. Justified or not that was how you ended up with Disruptor bolts in the back of your skull.
Rolling the dice yet again, and hoping to move before shots were fired, he threw a gnarled hand up. He clamped on to the IIA woman's forearm, and with a pained grunt he leveraged himself upright, instinctively placed himself between the two ladies. Whether it would do anything but get him killed was up to them, but old habits died hard. "Seems like you two know eachother for real," remarked the soldier, carefully trying to gauge the Aschen through his shattered eyes. "I'm sure you make a beautiful couple, but what's this about living?"
Before he could even formulate another sarcastic remark in an errant attempt at diffusal he a glint. Just a tiny, minuscule light bouncing off of a rifle barrel behind Marlene. Too fleeting to discern the weilder, and too close to ignore, yet he swore he caught a glimpse of something...Pink? Nothing Yuri would ever allow his rabble to wear, but it didn't mean it was friendly. Fuck me sideways..
Nodding subtly, he snarled a soft warning. "Company, twelve o'clock. Unknown tango, armed."
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Post by Fife on Aug 23, 2018 20:11:35 GMT -6
Marlene's eyes flashed briefly, she was aware of the woman behind them, but her precognition didn't betray any outright hostile intent.
Of course, she had perceived scenarios in the event that the pink haired woman behind her tried to open fire.
"She doesn't believe it." Marlene said in reference to Harkov. "I've got documentation to prove that we go way back, but she wants to keep living a lie." Marlene briefly cast her glance down to Behzad's leg. "You're injured." Marlene commented. "We're not going anywhere until I reset that leg, and give you some nanites." She added, gesturing to the cold, concrete floor. "Reset the leg and give you a nanite injection, and you should be right as rain."
Letting her disruptor PDW hang by it's sling, Marlene slowly took inventory of her surroundings. Harkov, Behzad, a pink stranger, and some sort of alien. She grimaced, not quite a fighting force to work their way back to the surface.
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Post by Circe on Aug 25, 2018 21:32:39 GMT -6
"Sometimes... sometimes the lie is better than the truth." She managed to say carefully, keeping any anger towards the other in check. Despite all of this she still couldn't help feeling like there had been some sort of insult made towards her. There was obviously a reason the other had tracked her all the way to Sky's Edge, and it wasn't to have a friendly conversation. Even if this whole thing was a lie, it seemed better than the truth that she'd been faced with. A lengthy service record cut short by a traumatic injury that no one had even cared to look for or possibly think about. Rei felt like she'd spent the most of her adult life being tossed aside and left to lick wounds, trying her hardest at making the best of a bad situation.
"So if you're done being a bitch... you might want to consider being helpful for once." Harkov added gesturing towards Bezhad, whose pharmacopiea had likely depleted just getting him this far. She knew that sooner or later he'd come crashing down from whatever high he was currently feeling, and it likely wouldn't be fun for anyone involved.
"You know.. not just standing there like a fuckin' space cadet."
The other woman had been largely absent and not even mentioned in any of the personal communications in the files that had been shown to her. It seemed to her like the other would be more than happy for her to wink out of existence. Between the time in cold storage, her rude awakening by Yuri and his men, not to mention the drugged stupor in the Cenote, Rei had had more than enough time to make sense of this mess. The other woman was playing with her, and Rei didn't have the patience to put up with it.
There was some sort of weird relationship between them that she hadn't yet untangled.
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Post by littlekreen on Aug 31, 2018 14:14:36 GMT -6
A familiar face to Harkov pushed its way out of pea-soup smoke as Sprinkles stepped sideways away from the wall. Slouched and swaying badly she stumbled once glancing at the PDW as telekinetics reached to reset and hold the safety. The fist on that side clenched to ready though the chain wreathing it dripping with someone else's red lifeblood. Her own was a milky white. The other hand little different but the red pattern more of a spray. The spatters of red and saliva along the barrel Cassie held as much an explanation as any the Gardener could give now. Sprinkles stood still reaching out to the opposite wall but the smoke wasn't moving in front of her mouth a certain feeble weariness weighing heavily upon her.
She clapped her tapered grip-arms and waved to Harkov. The other hand extended a middle finger toward Marlene.
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Post by demikara on Aug 31, 2018 15:47:51 GMT -6
Cassie had held up the gun as soon as she saw the people through the smoke. But...it looked like it wasn't to be. Her new friend seemed to know these people, and well, they hadn't fired first. Manners were important after all. "Hello! I'm Cassie, and this is my new friend. But she seems to know you, which I guess means I shouldn't shoot you. Unless you want to be shot? Cause I can do that!" She had the gun pointed down but still ready.
There was a man who looked like the cat hadn't just dragged him in, but had gleefully played with him. Then again, so did her new friend. And looking hem over, it was her and the lady in oh shit. IIA gear. "...hey, uh, new friend?" She whispered, though not particularly quietly. "Are we sure all of them are friendlies?" IIA gear did not really mean friendly to Cassie, given her run ins. And with the dull ache in the back of her head of her ship being gone, well. She felt rather more defenseless than she would like to, gun in her hands or not.
Team Pink over here, her and the bug person, were definitely friendlies. Mind swimming to try and form some sort of logical response, she stared probably a bit too intensely at Marlene, caught in a loop of trying to access her databanks again. It was hard even pretending to be stable right now. She had to not let them know how bad off her brain was, at least until she could get attached to some sort of computer.
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