Things that go Bump in the Night

[Kai]

About an hour later, the banging on the door had ceased, as it seemed the mutant zombies did in fact get bored eventually, and had left well enough alone. Kai and Hendlow had finished explaining, and the pilots of the shuttles had informed the Squad that night had indeed fallen. The old man, by the name of Caprice, had pointed out where they needed to go, but warned them that it wasn't as safe as the safehouse. Inside, there were still a number of those that had been infected 14 years ago, and the door to the passageway hadn't been opened in that entire time. However, there were some things within that could help them get to the end of the journey if they made it far enough. What the things were, he would not say, but Destiny and a couple of the survivors had been chosen to accompany the squad to their destination.

Now, outfitted one again in their usual combat regalia, but much more prepared for their enemies, SS 215 stood, on the threshold of a door into a chamber that had been sealed since the beginning of the plague. What remained beyond it was to be seen.

"So, are you guys ready? I won't hold it against any of you if you stayed behind, this mission was volunteer from the beginning." Kai asked the group, looking to each one of them in turn, finally stopping on the Admiral. Despite his protests, she had insisted on accompanying them, and that she had fully recovered. there was nothing the young Lieutenant could do about it.

[Kokuten]

"Pbbbbbbbbbbbbbbt!" rasped Asher before he burst into laughter, obviously being one of the ones in the volunteer group, since the settlement refused to make a nice face in his presence. "C'mon, Naka-boss, really? Tha' more a'us come along, tha' faster we get off this shithole, n'move to a less shitty hole." His reasoning seemed valid enough, but he was sure that Destiny and her friend-survivors had 'braver' and 'responsible' reasons. Likely, it was for something stupid like, 'We owe it to you', or something like, figured Asher.

If anyone had bothered notice, Asher seemed to be wearing more armor than previously seen. During the time they had spent conversing and moving, the lone Surandanian had gone 'scavenging' for a little protection amongst Destiny's group. While few ears were listening and even less eyes were paying attention, Asher had knocked cold one of the thicker looking members for a pair of armored braces, a pair of lower leg guards, and a new flashlight. It was the first time the man had ever stolen from Destiny's group, but by their attitudes, one of them needed a good smack in the face. So, there Asher stood, more armored, and possibly more perceptive with a nicer flashlight.

[Gwathdraug]

Adrian shifted his shoulders, trying to get at an itch trapped somewhere under his armour – most likely one of those survivors had slipped something down his back to cause the discomfort, he didn't think they had taken to kindly to his threat, because he was receiving almost as many glares as Asher.
After his attempts to free himself from the most mild of problems that plagued this hell-hole of a planet had failed one shake or shrug after another, the sniper simply stopped and concentrated on the task at hand instead.
There was a door, and it was being kept closed for the moment. The marine sighed as the itch caught his attention again, as the group's new objective was rather dull for the moment.
Another fight, and another win for the itch and Adrian resigned himself to checking over his gear again, he wiggled his pistol about making sure it was secure, checked the sights on his RGSR and looked for anything wrong with its barrel. Finding nothing out of place, the sniper began counting the ammo for his rifle one-by-one.

[CadetNewb]

"I'll go on and scout ahead if you want sir, or just take point." Cibo said to Kai. "I'm probably better suited to either role." A fair amount of things had happened in the hours til darkness settled on them. Cibo had nervously talked to some of the other women present and did her best to have some small talk, but it was apparently just as hard as it was for the survivors as it was for her; they were all a little messed up in on way or another, and it was a definite that not all of them were as well adjusted as Destiny. A shower, a meal with some unfamiliar people in an unfamiliar place. It was...nice. But, that didn't completely dissolve her woes; Cibo knew she messed up badly, and she wasn't going to forget anytime soon. It ate away at her like a cancer. She didn't like it one bit, and wanted the feeling gone. There was only one thing she could do to get rid of it though.

'I'll find him. That bastard. I'll find him for sure.' Cibo readied her Bro and donned her masking balaclava.

[Mr. Blackbird Lore]

Hendlow was glad to have smoothed everything- or at least most of everything- out with these survivors, and finally had the ball rolling again. Now it was time for action once more, and he was ready. They'd had their fifteen minute break, they'd prepped, and everything was squared away. Once Kai had determined the order of things, the Second Lieutenant added, "Remember, talk is to be kept to essentials. Quick and quiet gets us the hell out of here. So let's do this and be done."

[Kai]

"Exactly." Kai said, confirming what Hendlow had said. Quietly, yet quickly, he unlocked the door, and then opened it- While the Terran marines all had night vision in their helmets, the survivors that had opted to come with them had to rely on flashlights. Beams of lights showed a dusty room with naught but a set of stairs leading down. Night vision showed a somewhat clearer picture of the entire room, including walls with dark stains on them, and a few shuffling tracks through the dust that looked to be several years old. The door closed and locked behind them, and down the stairs they went, Cibo taking point, and they moved down the hallway. it was more of the same- the occasional dark stain on the wall, colors indiscernible after a decade and a half, and the odd shuffling track, though it only seemed to be a single track, whatever had made it possibly took the same way both directions.

There was nothing of note, aside from lamps on the walls, which Kai took to counting as they passed- the lamps never turned on, perhaps they were connected to a manual switch somewhere, but they didn't have time to find it. The hallway continued, perfectly straight, unbroken, for about a mile, before they came to a branch- it was a short 90-degree turn from the main passageway, and held nothing but a door, coated in dust. The door was locked fast, and a look inside the dusty window showed it to be nothing more than a small room that possibly belonged to a night watchman. Four small televisions were in one corner, long since broken, and a bed was in the other. On the wall in the middle was a mounted shotgun, but there wasn't really anything else interesting in there. Besides, the two corners they could not see from the window could have probably held one of the mutants, just waiting.

Again, they continued onward, as they went deeper, it got colder, and the hallway became less stable. the concrete grew cracked, and broken in several places, some parts caved in, but still, nothing to bother them. By the time they had gone two miles, they reached a larger chamber. This one showed more signs of shuffling, but didn't have any enemies in it. Instead, there was a single object in it, one that explained some of the damage they had seen- a light mecha, obviously some kind of security model. It had been damaged by acid, and was obviously broken, and the shells all around it spoke of a gunfights of some kind, but there was something off about the whole situation- there was not a single body or set of bones, anywhere in the room.

"What is that thing?" Kai asked, quietly. He knew that the UTR had deployed things like these in the past, but their complexity and resource cost made them nearly impossible to use in the current war.

Destiny spoke up, to answer the Lieutenant. "These were part of the Terran security force on this planet- I thought all had been destroyed fighting the Drathonians on the day Surandan fell, but it looks like a few survived, though, this one is obviously out of commission. I- I know how to pilot one. we have a Simulator in the safe house. If we can find a working one, it may come in handy."

[Kokuten]

"Ey! I recognize 'dis!" said Asher as he hopped up to the security mecha. He climbed up the side and began fiddling with one of the shoulders of the machine. "We pulled some'a'deez outta' tha' sewers a while back. I spent a year a'my life tryin' t'put one of these back t'getha'. Shame no one knew how t'use it at tha't time." The Surandanian grabbed a spare piece of metal and began to twist it on one of the bolts holding down an armor plate. After a moment of working at the mecha, the plate rose off it's place, and settled back, releasing a depressurized gust of air. "Phew..." Asher went, peeking into the open space, "Man, this iss' missin' a few a' tha' servos, but if we could find anotha' one, I bet I could rapid fit a bit in here. Despite tha' extensive structural damage tha' could totally fuck this thing inta' a'splosion' by crankin' it up, it could move again."

[Gwathdraug]

The mecha piqued Adrian's interests, the older marine remembered seeing one a small group of them in a practice run before the betrayal and the sniper had to be honest to himself – no matter how good of a rifle he was caring right now (and the RGRS was quite a rifle) – its performance paled in comparison to what one of those war machines could do.
Watching Asher clamber up it and make his claim that he could probably get it to move again, Adrian spoke up. “What's do the weapons look like? And if they're fine does it have any ammo to use in 'em? You may be fond of bashing things, but if that thing can't shoot when it gets cornered by some of those acid spitters it's just going to be a fancy death trap.”

[CadetNewb]

Cibo kept at point, staying well ahead of the group but 'in sight'. The self camouflaging like properties of her chameleon suit let her blend in and efficiently spot things earlier before she was spotted, or simply slip away. As she was on point, Cibo spotted the mech first, but Cibo being Cibo, kept on going right past. It wasn't a threat, and it wasn't worth noting since it was broken anyways. It wasn't until she was a good 20 meters further down that her ears picked up noise. Behind her. Cibo froze, and blended into the wall she was following proper. The Intelligence Agent's heart rate spiked as her ears struggled to figure out what the sound was. And then she realized what it was; they were still back there climbing over and talking about the mecha. Cibo slid back to the group carefully.

"Pssst! Aren't we supposed to keep quiet?!" She asked in a hasty whisper. Cibo wanted to yell at them all so badly, it hurt. At the moment, her only comfort was that her Ottyo Liason couldn't have been doing much better.

[Kokuten]

"Shut up, flatchest." went Asher quietly, having to resist the urge laugh intensely. Cibo had already made the mistake of giving him some aggravation fuel, something Destiny would know quite well. He wondered if she could resist putting any kind of retribution on him.

"Well..." started the Surandanian, still keeping his voice only audible enough for them. "This iss' one a'da Street-Security Models, so it don't got tha' 25mm autocannon. An' it don't sure don' got tha' 50mm shuttle-busta eitha'. 'Stead, it uses two 15mm machine guns f'anti-personell purposes. Since tha' local enforcement only needed it f'tha' street, it only uses something it' can spray n'assload a big rubba' bullets outta'. In this case, it wass' usin' big-fuckin' real bullets." The usually sly look on his face was gone when he was looking back at them, what they could see was the face of an excited child with a spike goatee. "Shame it couldn't move f'shit, anyway. 'Sides, I'd ratha' tha' War-Ready models ova' that Street-Security models, I never seen one'a those shuttle-busta's shoot, but tha' bullet sure is pretty."