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Re: [Episode One] Gateway of Hopes

Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2011 6:08 pm
by Kai
"You're pretty dense, Aren't you, Kwon?" Destiny asked Rhetorically, shoving her rifle in the crack in the door and using the long weapon as leverage to get the door open- It looked like it was just enough to let kwon slide through, but it was obvious Destiny wouldn't be able to get out without someone doing the same for her, which, currently, wasn't an option. "I'll take the vents." she explained, pointing up, before motioning for Kwon to get back out into the hallway, and thus the fight.

***********************

The Grenade exploded, but it wasn't quite enough to kill Cibo's enemies. It was, however, enough to stun them, and the volume of fire decreased dramatically- The two marines supporting Cibo burst in headfirst, firing their rifles at any targets they could see- within a matter of moments, they had cleaned out the heavy laser nest, but then came another problem- a hole burned through several walls lead into a hallway, and through it came several quite unhappy lizards.

"Malinowsky, take the cannon!" One of the marines suggested, as the due took to cover and began providing covering fire to keep back the new onslaught that they could see was barely affected from the fire in the hallway.

Re: [Episode One] Gateway of Hopes

Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2011 7:05 pm
by Mr. Blackbird Lore
Kwon slipped through the gap without a word and informed his commanding officer that Briggs was in the ventilation.

"Briggs," called Sergeant Hendlow. "If you can find a way, drop yourself in the control room. No point in coming back into the fray if you can get things ready for us up ahead." Together, Hendlow and Kwon rushed back into the fray. Seeing the Drathonians clustered, it was tempting to use a grenade, but Garrett made sure his order was clear: no grenades. Instead his team picked through the opposition one by one. Only a handful of lizards remained in that small pocket between the two advancing Terran squads. It would be over in minutes, perhaps seconds.

Re: [Episode One] Gateway of Hopes

Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 5:55 pm
by Gwathdraug
Adrian had been in the middle of a firefight with the Drathonians on the far side of the squad and had missed Kai's call for him to perform his duty as sniper support.

Looking back, the sniper wished he had gone over and assisted his fellows marines by doing his actual job. As it had stood though, Adrian was standing there, the fight in that part of the hall over, having just scrambled out of a deluge of sewage that had spewed forth from a busted pipeline just to drench the poor marine.

Worse yet, Adrian himself had been the one to shoot open the pipeline.

One of the lizards had gotten a lucky shot and a slug a careened just past Adrian's hand and dented up his magazine pretty badly before ricocheting off into nowhere again. And – well – it had startled Adrian. A sniper had gotten startled by a lucky shot and he had jerked his weapon upward, fired, and popped the pipe wide open.

Then he had slipped. And fallen. And now he smelled rather rank – even rancid in some places.

Popping the ruined mag out and inspecting his weapon, Adrian decided not to talk about the incident until somebody saw fit to bring it up themselves. Opening his coms-channel the marine took a few deep breaths and finally just sighed.

“I'm here Sarge, I'll be right over.” Jogging up to the sniping position, Adrian pointedly didn't look towards his squad leader as he tracked wet sewage behind him. Getting into position the marine shook his head ruefully. “Cibo heads up, I'm starting with the ones farthest back for me, the ones up front I'm sure you'll figure out how to mow down.”

Re: [Episode One] Gateway of Hopes

Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2011 2:04 am
by CadetNewb
"W-wha?! Little me? The heavy laser?" Cibo balked at her orders. "Baka-bakka!"

The thin and lithe intelligence agent waited until the other marines were being attention whores before dashing forward on fast feet to grasp the heavy laser cannon. Her feet kicked at it's power umbilical, detaching it from the turret mount and power supply. "You're all idiots having me do this!" She called out, bringing the weapon forward and slamming it into place. Cibo grabbed the odd feeling grip and let rip a long laser pulse that sliced through the station's walls, killing whatever she could behind cover. Shots forced her down behind her own little bit of wall, pulling the weapon down with her to keep it from getting toasted. As soon as the Marines suppressed them, the intelligence agent hefted the cannon back into position and let rip with another long "BWEEEEM!", the flashlight of doom devastating whatever was in it's way.

Cibo pulsed the cannon one final time before the capacitor emptied; the intelligence agent pulled the weapon away from the forward position and started lugging it back to recharge it. "Damn it Lolita! Where are you when I need you!? This is your kind of thing!"

*****

Somewhere else, Lolita sneezed.

Re: [Episode One] Gateway of Hopes

Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2011 4:14 pm
by Kai
"Shouldn't be a problem, sir." Destiny responded via radio, doing her best to make as little noise in the vents as possible- it wasn't too hard, it had been a while since anyone had cleaned the vents, and the caked on layers of dust did wonders to muffle her movements. However, she was quite glad to be wearing a sealed helmet, as she kicked up her fair share of the dust.

Luckily, the puffs coming from the vents were completely lost on the Lizards as they were busily firing their meager slugthrowers down the hallway trying in vain to halt the better-equipped Terran marines bearing down on them. Destiny continued her way forward, taking pauses to peek out of the vents whenever she could to spy on the lizards.

"Looks like you've got about another twenty coming your way. Watch out, one of them's got what looks like a plasma rifle- I don't want to see how much better that one works compared to the slugthrowers..."

That certainly changed things. "If that's the case, I'm authorizing use of explosives again. We've got enough padding to risk it, and I don't want to see any energy fire coming our way. Fifty bucks to whoever pegs the bastard. You all owe me ten each if I get him. Game?" Garrett grinned and continued the advance. Twenty more was nothing. Surandan made Drathonians far less scary for the Sergeant, though that only led to a higher propensity for stupid stunts... like jumping through open space onto a flat metal surface.

Shifting impatiently, Hector checked over his puny rifle one last time. He couldn't believe they would issue him, a Heavy, such a tiny weapon. He wished he had two taped together since his fingers were large enough to reach to a second trigger. Such a waste of finger space. He heard his superior talking and was about to ignore what was being said until he heard a key word "explosives". Hector was all ears after that. He loved explosives, fire, and guns (not this puny one though, he liked MANLY guns like the Organ Grinder and The Maw). After the spiel was over, Hector moved to the middle of the hallway and readied his rifle to be the first to take out those scaly bastards and to make a small bit of cash as well.

"Alright Adrian, we gotta push forward, get back up here with the rest of us!" Kai called back at the sniper, as the squad moved forward, their quarry's attention now divided between two areas.

Kai split the remains of his squad with a quick command, sending two more Marines to assist Cibo- they made very swift progress due to the holes burned in the walls by the laser cannon, and soon took up a firing position from behind a blown out wall in the room Next to Cibo's.

"Cibo, Keep it up, we're coming for you!" Kai called out to the Intel agent as he made his way forward through the hallway.

"Alright then, I'll be following in a second." Adrian yelled back as he fired off a quick burst - not really aiming, just trying to keep enemy heads down while the rest of the squad was moving.

Figuring he should get moving the sniper stood up and sprinted after Kai, following him down the hallway - Adrian nodded to himself in satisfaction, the closer they got the more he could do with the rifle they had stuck him with.

Switching out another magazine as he took up his position the marine grinned wildly at his squad leader. "Any idea how many more are coming at us Sir?"
The skinny intelligence agent had hefted the massive energy weapon she had away from her forward firing position and back to the pedestal to recharge it, complaining loudly on the way back. "Why can't one of these burly men carry it instead? Why have the lady lug this around?" When Cibo finally got back to the turret base, she hastily hooked the weapon back up. "Screw this! Marines, hit the deck!"

A spotlight of death cut through the walls from the remounted cannon at the Drathonian position.

"I'm going to keep heading toward the control room, then. Just make sure not to blow up the ceiling, I'm in there!" Destiny radioed back, before hurrying her way down the vents. it was maybe fifty yards to the Control room, so it wouldn't take her long to get there, though the rest of the squad was a good 100 yards behind her at the moment.

Destiny would hear the racket of slugthrowers beneath her, as the mostly grunt Drathonians continued pelting a hail of slugs down the hallway at the squad.

************
"Not sure, at least twenty." Kai responded quickly to Adrian, taking up position behind a downed Drathonian and laying down some more fire. He aimed for the head of a Drathonian that was heading straight at the hole in the wall when his rifle clicked- out of ammo. Luckily, the next thing the squad saw was the laser cannon being used effectively, and Kai's target was no longer alive. He chuckled and swapped out magazines, stuffing the empty in the pouch that had held the full one.

Back where Adrian was, one of the 'dead' Drathonians decided it was time to get back up, and the beast sat on its haunches, giving Adrian a dazed look as it tried to regain it's senses. from the Sniper's vantage point, the thing almost seemed to have a crooked smile.

As far as Cibo was going, her laser beam had done it's job quite handily, and maimed or killed the entire front group of Drathonians. The four marines around her took it to their advantage and downed those few that had only been injured.; However, there was another wave coming in right after the first.

"Hector, on point. Asher, you're with him." If any pair of soldiers could find and make the moneyshot, chances were these two would find and make it the quickest. Sergeant Hendlow wasn't far behind them, keeping tabs on Asher's aggression and Hector's sporadic behavior. The Drathonians were digging in now as they had come to the end of the line; there was nowhere else to retreat.

"Come at me you scaly freaks!" Hector shouted at the top of his lungs. And began firing at the first Drathonian he saw. About half way through his first magazine, Hector realized he forgot to light up his cigar before the battle began. Quite disappointed in himself, he continued firing at the enemy.

A bit startled by one of the corpses rising back to its feet, Adrian took the situation in stride as best he could. The sniper immediately switched his aim to the new and much more pressing danger. Adrian took a few seconds to get his shots lined up for center mass, and then triggered a steady five-round burst into the lizards chest.

"Watch your backs everybody, just had a wounded Drath try to get back into the fight, might be more."

With the cannon plugged in, Cibo had no trouble at all firing the weapon continuously, as fast as the weapon would cycle without overheating. "Hey, I think I'm getting the hang of this! No wonder Lolita drags around all those guns!" she giggled, ecstatic at the carnage and mayhem the weapon was creating. "Hey, hey! Listen! What should I do next?" the giddy intelligence agent asked over the comms.

The two point men from Garrett's squad soon found themselves within the more dangerous ranges of their enemies' weapons, and much easier to hit. Instead of simply pinging off their armor, the slugs now dug deep gouges along the plates, and a few closer hits tore at the fabric of their outfits, drawing blood finally. Asher took a rather heavy slug straight to the faceplate, denting the transparent metal and causing its reflective surface to crack and buckle, spiderwebbing his view.

Soon, however, the two, and likely even Garrett, could see the Drathonian with the plasma rifle- he was larger than the others, and obviously the commander as he roared orders in Drathonian at his soldiers.

************
The Drathonian's crooked smile didn't change as Adrian blew its chest cavity open, the nasty brown blood and gore splattering everywhere, and turning into a dripping mess as the corpse remained upright. A few drops splashed over the sniper's helmet, but it wasn't any worse than what he was already covered in.

"Good work, Adrian." Kai responded to the sniper. "I'll alert the squad." and, soon enough, each member of his squad was notified that the downed Drathonians weren't all necessarily dead.

"Cibo, keep firing until they stop coming. You're right next to the Control room, so make sure to NOT fire to your left." Sure enough, the drathonians continued coming, despite the onslaught of fire from the four marines and Cibo's mounted cannon. The pile of enemy bodies now numbered around 25, and there appeared to be another wave of ten or so coming through. Thankfully, it would be the last.

Fuck it. "Marines! Grenades out! That's an order!" Hendlow dropped to the floor, snagged one from his belt, and gave it a lob. Then he was back on his feet, gun firing full auto into the enemy's ranks. He never killed one with this method, but it was enough to make them think twice. Even cold-hearted killers had a tendency toward survival.

Smiling with glee at such an order, Hector unhitched his belt, pulled the middle grenade's pin and tossed the grenades, belt and all into the largest cluster of lizards and then continued firing.

Seeing this, Garrett's eyes immediately widened. "Asher, Hector! Halt!" The last thing he needed was the two crazy ones blowing themselves up. Asher almost seemed not to listen, but it soon became apparent he was deciding whether or not he was okay with Hector one-upping him. The Surandanian opted for a lone grenade then propped himself up behind a dead lizard.

Sulking, Hector took a few steps back and finally took some cover. So what if he went over the top in combat? The enemies would just die faster. It always works that way, right?

"Man! I juss' got this' fuckin' pot today!" growled Asher, as he felt the dent on the visual plate of his helmet, pressing himself tightly against his light cover. "What tha' hell am I s'posed t'do when they deface tha' ultimate glory 'dat is my helmet. Shake 'dere hand? C'mon, boss!" He complained, holding up his hands as if he really didn't know any other proper response. "I gotta' image of fear n'death t'keep up 'ere, an havin' a smeared pot ain't gunna help much, yeah?"

Glancing around at a few of the other downed corpses, Adrian made sure they were in fact corpses before he took up his firing position again. The blood and sewage covered marine sighed as he lined up a target - this was much more how he preferred things, far enough away that there was no way in God's heavens that he could be drenched again by any sort of unsanitary fluids.

Of course, there was plenty of time left in the mission and Adrian had no doubt that something else would go wrong before everything was over.
"I'm not complaining anymore!" Cibo shouted back to Kai. "Oh, this is so fun!" The slight woman swept the bright red paintbrush over the Drathonian forces, cutting deeper and deeper into them and their cover - plus the station - with each successive sweep. "Hey, at this rate, I'll bust right through the other side of the place and vent more atmosphere!" She couldn't help but giggle a little at that thought; it'd be one hell of a sight to behold, and probably kill any Drathonians that didn't have masks on!

Cibo kept firing, hoping that she'd 'accidentally' breach the station.

There was a sudden, enormous conflagration as not one, or even two, but rather four grenades went off, at around the same time. The Drathonian front ranks erupted into a mess of brown blood and red scales, as well as a bit of floor and wall, and even a bit of ceiling. dust and shrapnel was everywhere, but the remaining twelve or so Drathonians continued firing, and, as expected from this distance, a burst of plasma fire erupted from the Commander's rifle. all the particles in the air caused a lot of bloom, but the plasma bolt still lanced into the ground where Hector had been standing with enormous force, tearing the plating apart and vaporizing some of it as well. A second blast found its way farther back, blowing out a wall panel and showering the squad with sparks and shards of metal.

******************
"I would prefer if you didn't, Cibo." Kai responded to the lithe intelligence officer, sounding a bit annoyed, as he pushed forward more, watching as Adrian's accurate fire, combined with the more voluminous fire of the other squad members, wreaked havoc on the flank of the Drathonians going after Cibo. One of Adrian's shots in particular spectacularly blinded a Drathonian by piercing one eye and shooting out the other from behind.

Cibo's continued fire, along with her support, saw to it that, in a very short amount of time, there were almost no enemies left.

Garrett smirked. "Then I suggest you beat one of them to death with it. That'll really get 'em goin'." Then, realizing what that might lead to, he added, "After we get that control room open." There were more pressing matters, however. "Hector. A little... reserve would do you some good. That said, you missed him.

"Team, focus fire on that plasma rifle. If he's not dead in the next minute, you're all on shit duty."

"Fuck 'dat, shit duty's for pussies and flatchests!" roared Asher as he rolled over, bringing his rifle to bear and unloading a fully-automatic, but controlled spray on the enemy's position. He kept that position holding fire until his magazine emptied out. As he felt the magazine dry, he held up a hand, and a middle finger, letting his controlled burst turn into a wide spray. As soon as that ended, he ducked back down in cover, replacing another magazine into his weapon.

Firing off another shot, Adrian shook his head as his target fell back into cover just as he tugged down on the trigger. Falling back to his own cover Adrian counted his remaining magazines. Counting the half-full one still in his rifle the sniper had more than enough to shoot the rest of the day away.

Though, as he scrunched his nose up underneath his helmet the marine decided it would be better to get things done with as soon as possible.

The Intelligence Agent perked up at the jibe; as an IA, it was her job to monitor transmissions!. "Hmph! Screw you Asher! If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me!" she shouted back at the short man. Cibo fired the laser cannon one last time in a long, prolonged beam, making sure to melt through as much cover as possible and into where she guessed the final Drathonian was. "He dead? He's gotta be dead! Right? Right?" she asked excitedly.

Heat fell off the weapon in waves as the weapon vented.

Garrett's squad's targets continues to fall as fire was poured down on them, but, somehow, that damn Plasma rifle wouldn't go down. Another bolt of superheated, ionized gasses made its way down the hallway, pile-driving into the ceiling above Garrett and showering him with debris, taking out a bank of lights and darkening the corridor, compounding the dimness caused by the dust still floating about.

"You guys better hurry, I'm at the control room already. It looks like there's only a couple inside" Destiny suddenly radioed "As soon as you guys get here I'll take them out, alright?"

***********************************
The squad began to simply watch as Cibo over-fired her weapon, going crazy and carving up the hallway as if it were butter. when her weapon finally died, the heat wasn't the only thing falling off of it- bits of composites and plastics that made up the internals could be seen dripping out of cooling vents- she had thoroughly destroyed it. As the dust cleared, they could see the tail of an extremely small Drathonian disappear into nothingness as it ran down the hallway- it was a Moonie, and it was obviously going for reinforcements. Or hiding, now that the other Drathonians weren't around to bully it into fighting.

"Alright, guys, form up in the hallway, we need to get ready to assault the control room!" Kai ordered, jogging forward, followed by most of the squad.

Re: [Episode One] Gateway of Hopes

Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2011 4:24 pm
by Kokuten
"Y'don' have t'tell me, Cibo! I'd go down wit' you any~time" chuckled Asher, as he slammed his magazine in place, and waited, hunched behind the large corpse he was hiding behind. The Surandanian kept his head down, throwing an occasional glance in Hendlows direction. The situation seemed to be a slow advance forward, something he'd love to rectify, but his Sergeant was already pulling the reins. Likely, any more unrestrained push would have some consequences. So, he simply put a few bursts of blind-fire over his cover in a nonchalant manner, before hunkering the rifle back down.

Re: [Episode One] Gateway of Hopes

Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2011 12:16 am
by Kai
Kai, upon noting the inter-squad chatter, realized that he hadn't checked on the status of Garrett's squad for a while. They still seemed to be alive, but in what condition he wasn't sure of.

"Hendlow! What's going on on your side? We're cleared out over here, about to enter the control room, what's your ETA?" the sergeant asked of his colleague, wondering if it would be better to wait, or to hurry.

Re: [Episode One] Gateway of Hopes

Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2011 5:01 pm
by Gwathdraug
Adrian was standing near Cibo as the squad waited for Kai to give the "good-to-go". The sniper was taking the slight break in combat to try and get some of the filth that covered him out of his kit.

Shaking his head forlornly as realitively little resulted from his efforts, Adrian looked over towards Cibo.

"The smell as bad as I think it is?"

Re: [Episode One] Gateway of Hopes

Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 8:45 pm
by Mr. Blackbird Lore
Noting Sergeant Nakamura's ease of tone, Sergeant Hendlow knew they were in good condition. "We've got a damn plasma rifle, but otherwise running smoothly." After another glance, Garrett realized that was almost all they had left- there were four more Drathonians being bullied into holding rank with him. "Westwood, Constantine! Finish that damn rifleman! Squad, suppressive fire!" He rose to his full height, hardly intimidating in itself- certainly not face-to-face with an adult lizard- but if everyone followed his lead it would certainly make an impression on their lesser-minded opponents. "If you can afford time for a pincer movement, the help would be appreciated. Also, heads-up: by some act of cleverness or stupidity two of the lizards got inside the control room. Also, Destiny is in the vents."

Re: [Episode One] Gateway of Hopes

Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 1:11 am
by CadetNewb
"No-no-no-no-NO! Where's the failsafes? Why didn't this thing have failsafes?! Damn Chi - I mean - Drath quality worksmanship!" Cibo swore. The slim intel agent quickly slipped in behind cover again despite the battle being finished, doing her best to figure out what to do next. Sure, she had been thorough, but Cibo still wasn't sure if the plasma using lizard was dead enough yet, but it had well better be dead after she melted the hallway like chocolate on a hot sidewalk! As he comm squawked, Cibo gave back an indignant, abashed reply to the other marine.

"What? Go down with you Asher? Nu-uhh! You're too small for my taste; I prefer my marines bigger. You know, the ones that's got more energy to soak up all the plasma for me and be good meat for the pounding!" she quickly replied.