Fall Arc: Resonance
Re: Fall Arc: Resonance
"Oh, hey!" Hotaru exclaimed suddenly, making her way quickly forward- There was a door in the side of the hallway, clearly marked as restrooms. Before anybody could do anything to stop her or at least check the restrooms for safety, she had made her way in- the door marked 'women' flapped and rattled as she pushed it open and let it swing itself shut. Almost as soon as the door stopped moving, however, they would hear a scream from Hotaru.
Re: Fall Arc: Resonance
"Ugh! That dumbshit!" growled Sarah, flicking on the flashlight on the end of he rifle an slinking across the wall she was on. If Hotaru wasn't dead, she was going to beat the everliving crap out of her for doing something stupid! With furious strike on the door, forcing it to swing open, she made her action. The Medic quickly turned in, aiming her rifle inside the room, making a quick scan from wall to wall.
Re: Fall Arc: Resonance
Sarah would find a faintly distraught looking Hotaru rummaging through a sack on her web gear, before pulling out a bit of makeup. "Oh man, I can't believe how horrible I look!" She complained, trying to re-apply her make-up. Of course, the mirror was horribly dirty, but the flamer didn't seem to have taken that into account.
Re: Fall Arc: Resonance
The Medic stood there for a moment, watching the Flamethrower Marine touch up her make-up. It almost seemed like Sarah's brain was undergoing a hard reboot. Once her brain seemed to catch up with the situation, Sarah began to shake her rifle chattering left and right, with her finger seizuring over the trigger. After this brief moment, the woman let out her own scream of absolute rage. Private McCragg strode the small distance between them like some kind of monstrous banshee.
"You fucking..." roared Sarah as she brought her open-palmed hand down on Hotaru's skull, "DUMBFUCK!"
The Medic immediately turned around, rifle shouldered, muttering curses poisonously under her breath, and stomped her way out of the room, kicking the door on her way out as hard as she could.
"You fucking..." roared Sarah as she brought her open-palmed hand down on Hotaru's skull, "DUMBFUCK!"
The Medic immediately turned around, rifle shouldered, muttering curses poisonously under her breath, and stomped her way out of the room, kicking the door on her way out as hard as she could.
Re: Fall Arc: Resonance
The Heavy marine had burst through the door right behind the Medic in a strange inverse of roles, only to start snickering in relief and amusement. As Sarah blew her load and left however, she couldn't help but tease the marine even knowing she was right about the absurdity of the situation, which wasn't fully lost on Lolita. If she didn't know better, she would have guessed Hotaru may have done this deliberately. The buxom marine sure as hell knew she would have done the same thing. Though, as a one time thing of course. No need to cry Drathonian and end up like that one prankster scrub. Lolita still remembered cleaning up the mess after all. "Aww, why so serious Sarah? Don't you fret over looking pretty too?" She asked in honeyed tones. "Every girl's gotta keep an eye on her looks after all." the brassy marine pointed out.
Since Sarah did happen to have a point though, Lolita took her time to saunter over to the shorter Hotaru. "Still, what's that word you sometimes say?" Lolita asked. "Oh yes! Now I remember; Baka!"
Lolita gently bopped Hotaru on the head.
Since Sarah did happen to have a point though, Lolita took her time to saunter over to the shorter Hotaru. "Still, what's that word you sometimes say?" Lolita asked. "Oh yes! Now I remember; Baka!"
Lolita gently bopped Hotaru on the head.
Re: Fall Arc: Resonance
"Chiuuuu~" Hotaru complained, making a strange noise as her eyes took their time realigning themselves in their sockets. She held her head up with her hands, swaying slightly on the spot before regaining herself.
"That was mean!" the Japanese girl yelled after Sarah as she left, brandishing Mr. Fwooshy like an old man would brandish their cane. "I can't be seen without my sparkles on, that was a perfectly legitimate problem, okay!"
In any case, Hotaru followed the other two out of the restroom, though she was rubbing her head, Eying both Sarah and Lolita a bit maliciously. However, her sparkles now properly applied, the marine seemed much more intent on moving forward than she had a moment ago.
"That was mean!" the Japanese girl yelled after Sarah as she left, brandishing Mr. Fwooshy like an old man would brandish their cane. "I can't be seen without my sparkles on, that was a perfectly legitimate problem, okay!"
In any case, Hotaru followed the other two out of the restroom, though she was rubbing her head, Eying both Sarah and Lolita a bit maliciously. However, her sparkles now properly applied, the marine seemed much more intent on moving forward than she had a moment ago.
Re: Fall Arc: Resonance
"Oh c'mon Hotaru, I didn't hit you that hard...did I?" she asked herself, now looking at her hand and body, noting how much she towered over the shorter marine. Of course, practically everybody was shorter than her! "Ok, maybe I did accidentally hit you a bit harder than I mean to. A teensy bit, but you gotta understand, we were all worried sick about you!" Lolita explained.
"Besides, its' not like you're dating Edward or anything." the Marine went on, waving her hand.
"Besides, its' not like you're dating Edward or anything." the Marine went on, waving her hand.
Re: Fall Arc: Resonance
Private Third Class Lutz Schräder made his way cautiously through the dimly lit corridors of the asteroid on his way to meet up with his squad. The lean man was slinking along the wall as he cradled his rifle in his arms when he heard a commotion coming from down one of the side passages. Gripping his rifle tighter he made his way down the hallway until he could make out the forms of Terran marines.
“That must be them,†Lutz mumbled dryly to himself as he relaxed a bit and proceeded to the group at a quicker pace. Not too long thereafter, the young German caught up with the group.
“Hallo gang,†he announced in a playful manner, “Sorry for the delay, I got hung up in a corridor a ways back. Thankfully you guys made it fairly easy for me to work my way here.â€
“That must be them,†Lutz mumbled dryly to himself as he relaxed a bit and proceeded to the group at a quicker pace. Not too long thereafter, the young German caught up with the group.
“Hallo gang,†he announced in a playful manner, “Sorry for the delay, I got hung up in a corridor a ways back. Thankfully you guys made it fairly easy for me to work my way here.â€
Re: Fall Arc: Resonance
Private Third Class John Reese wasn't the best scout. In fact, he was probably one of the worst. Once the lights went out, John got horribly lost and started running in the wrong direction. Thankfully, he reoriented himself and followed the sound of women yelling profanities to finally make it to his destination.
"Hey folks! Finally found you. Got lost for a bit. Oops! But now I'm here and everything is awesome. What was with the screaming profanities? Not that I mind, it helped me find you. Anything to shoot yet? I love my rifle," he half-shuoted energetically while fidgeting and shifting his weight from side to side.
"Hey folks! Finally found you. Got lost for a bit. Oops! But now I'm here and everything is awesome. What was with the screaming profanities? Not that I mind, it helped me find you. Anything to shoot yet? I love my rifle," he half-shuoted energetically while fidgeting and shifting his weight from side to side.
Re: Fall Arc: Resonance
Sarah let out a low rumble of mumbling curses as she stalked ahead of the group, the native cave-dweller kept close to the wall, but the occasional loud curse showed she was no less close to be calm and quiet. Hotaru's little antic for the purpose of applying make-up gave her a little scare. She did think of slapping the Flamethrower Marine for running ahead stupidly, but she never imagined she'd be enraged enough to follow up on it. Stupid... Dumb... Idiot... were the words that growled and boiled within Sarah's mind, Fucking... God damn... Rich girl...
The Medic stopped for a moment, and took a deep breath, slinging her rifle over her shoulder to free up her hand so she could pat the sides of her helmet. She tried to clear up her mind of the minor fiasco, get her focus back on the mission at hand. After a few sighs, she unstrapped her rifle, and moved on, her mind becoming clear again.
As Sarah moved on, she would find herself coming to a corner, beyond which it was obvious there were no lights on. Just on the other side of the opening, she could see the light switch on the adjoining hallway's wall, ready to be flicked on, and aid them in their search.
Hotaru, for her part, continued to rub the top of her head, the sore bit where she was smacked throbbing slightly, but aside from that, she showed no signs of any injury, and walked along after Sarah, whom had managed to move quite a distance. Unlike Sarah, however, the Flamer walked straight down the middle of the hallway, unabashedly.
"Why'd you have to hit me too, Lolita?" Hotaru whined, looking back as some of the scouts returned to the squad, including the super-hyper Reese.
"Oi, Reese, why's the medic doing your job?" Hotaru called back at the twitchy scout.
"Good question. But she's probably better at it than I am. Plus, she seems a bit angry. Mostly at you. Kinda funny actually," he gave a giant, stupid grin and continued, "But I guess I should do my job right? Yeah, it would be smart." As he sauntered off to go find the medic, he tried to either match her stride or walk past her in order to appear like he was scouting.
As he neared the front, Sarah had seemed to calm down a bit so John considered it safe to take the lead without repercussion. "'Scuse me, scout coming through. Gotta do my job so I don't look useless, yes yes. Time to do my job....," he trailed off into silence as he began trying to concentrate on what was ahead instead of twitching.
The big marine watched Sarah go and sighed. "Because you were being an idiot. How do you think we all felt when we heard you screaming bloody murder?" Lolita's voicebox asked Hotaru. "Besides...I didn't hit you that hard, did I?" she asked, looking at her hand again. Regardless, she reached into a pocket and pulled out a rag. "Still, you really shouldn't be wearing shiny, sparkly makeup on the field, especially on your face! Do you think it's a good idea to have something shiny on your head in the middle of combat ops? No, I don't think so!"
Lolita moved to chase after Hotaru's face and wipe the sparkly (and possibly life threatening) makeup off of the smaller marine, barely taking notice of the wayward scout. "Hey, scrub, do your job then would you?" she spoke unkindly as he started to leave.
"Now, hold still Hotaru! It's gotta come off!"
Hotaru whined and batted Lolita's rag away. "Nope! Not gonna!"
Sarah chose to ignore the group in the back and the scout bypassing her. She only got angry when she talked to people, she'd have to work on that. At any rate, she looked around, checking for any idle movement before clearing the way across the hallway to flick on the switch with one gloved hand. There, some progress will get my mind back on track.
As the lights turned on, Sarah and Reese would notice something moving further down the hallway- It was a large, long, and low shaped thing with multiple spindly legs, colored brown, and sporting a head with bulging, rounded, compound eyes. Antennae twitched on its head, which turned toward the marines, before the Dog-sized creature began skittering its way toward them, for no apparent reason.
The Medic gave little time for reaction, quickly shouldering her rifle and firing a warning shot in the creature's path.
"Oh hey! The lights. Thanks Sarah! AHHHH A BUG!" shouted John as he grabbed his rifle off his back and took aim and fired wildly at the creature. Had he had time to set up his rifle and calm down, John would have made the kill on the first shot. However, in his current energetic state, he missed and used up half a magazine.
"Please, I just don't want a hole to be where your hea - " Lolita quickly turned towards the shooting as soon as it started, the rag dropping to the floor as she leveled the heavy machine gun she always carried, but didn't fire. 'Damn, they're in the way!'. The marine let the too inaccurate weapon drop, letting it catch on it's sling as her hands deftly drew out the sidearm she always carried.
The weapon's muzzle flashed three times as Lolita fired.
"Huh-Why's?" Hotaru spluttered, turning toward the group up ahead as they began firing, and then Lolita rushed past her, firing. Hotaru quickly followed behind her, getting Mr. Fwooshy ready, lighting the Pilot and opening the regulator.
The creature- now obviously an oversized Cockroach as it drew closer, deftly dodged Sarah's warning shots, avoided Reese's wild firings, but finally got hit by Lolita's sidearm, which blew a leg off and ruined a wing.
Hotaru, now ready, rushed forward and opened up with the plasma thrower, catching the bug on fire, turning it into a twitching pile of crispy protein in short order.
"Holy Shit, where'd you find this?" she exclaimed, sliding to a halt on the dusty floor, before kicking the carapace of the now dead bug with her steel-toed boot.
"The light made it appear!" whispered John frantically and then shot the carapace again for good measure. "Can't be too safe with dead things," he whispered.
"It was there when we cut the light on." reported the Medic, double-tapping two shots into the corpse of the roach.
John frantically nodded in agreement then looked around spazticly to try and pinpoint any more giant roaches of doom that might herald the apocalpyse.
The buxom marine practically growled at the smaller man, stepping up to him and making sure to cast him in her shadow. "Stop wasting ammo you scrub, and do your fucking job right." Lolita's earlier playful demeanor practically vanished for the moment as she shoved John forward with the butt of her weapon. "Take point, this mission just went hot." the woman pointed out, now stuffing her hair back into the helmet as it was donned. The expressionless faceplate turned to Sarah.
"You alright? Any bites?" Lolita asked.
"Huh?" the Medic looked up in a somewhat defenseless fashion up at Lolita. Sarah looked down at herself, and rubbed her calf against the other other. "Ah... I'm fine." With that, she simply stared up at the large woman before hesitantly following point again. "... Thanks."
Grumbling about filing a lawsuit against her, John skittered forwards and tried to look the part of a scout. Feeling that he should act far braver than he had just been, John opted the "badass" route, as he dubbed it in his mind, and scampered into the side passage quite making loud stepping sounds as he went.
As Reese made his loud way down the side passage, he would find it to be much smaller than the main passage, and, instead of rough-hewn from rock as the other was, it was more refined, with an actual wall covering of dull metal plating. He could see about 100 yards down the hallway, where it became dark again, though there would likely be a light switch near that point. along the walls on either side were a series of doors on either side, likely leading to storage rooms or the like.
There wasn't really much else in the hallway other than a thick coating of dust on the floor, interrupted near the walls by the footprints of the giant cockroaches.
Shuddering, John continued to move forward but with much less noise as he progressed down the passage. He tried to cover up the footprints of the giant cockroaches. It made him feel slightly safer. He progressed into the dark part of the passage and turned on his night vision before looking for a switch.
Lolita kept her heavy machine gun at the ready as they moved into the dark alley. Usually, pretty gals and dark alleyways didn't add up together well, but this instance was hopefully going to be different. After all, one had an assault rifle, another had a flamethrower, and the last one had a big honking spacegun.
Still, she couldn't help but note how they'd all fallen into a sort of 'formation' so to speak. John, the scrub, was up in front. Behind him was Lolita and Hotaru, both walking side by side, weapons ready, with Sarah in the center of the formation. The rear was brought up by the other two gentlemen, as it should have been considering Mcragge was the medic. Inside her helmet, she bit her lip as she thought over what she wanted to say in regards to the noob. Things weren't quite looking good.
"You dumbass, stop making noise! Women and dark alleyways don't go well together!" she hissed at him half playfully, half seriously.
Hotaru had left her helmet off, after all, they still had light, and she wasn't afraid of bugs so long as she had 'Mr. Fwooshy', even if they were the size of her family's guard dogs back on her home station. "Hey, dumbass" Hotaru whispered to Lolita. "You're being just as loud as he is." she pointed out, sticking her tongue out at the heavy marine.
As they walked down the hallway, Hotaru looked through the windows of the doors lining the hallway, noting that the rooms appeared to have been ransacked- destroyed packaging littered the floor, and the shelving units had been knocked over, but, judging by the dust, it had been quite a while since then, and there was no evidence of the doors having been used in a long while, so she left them alone.
"Shhhh." hissed Sarah at all of them from the back, not making much more noise than that. Noise carried in tight halls like this, and easy to pick up on with the kind of enemy they seemed to be faced with here. The Medic looked behind her, ensuring none of the disgusting insects were trying to sneak up on them, before turning back forward. She hummed gently to herself, not audible enough for her external speakers to really play it, but it kept her calm enough.
"I don't see anything up here, just some dust and bug footprints that I'm erasing" John said over the comms as he turned on the lights. "Shall I check out the storage rooms? Maybe there's some food or guns or something in them. Would be nice if there was some candy. I do love sugar...." he trailed off near the end. John never understood why people didn't want him having candy. It was just a tasty treat. He always felt so much more energetic after eating it though. Made him feel good too. Why would you not allow someone to have something hat makes them feel good? John only shook his head in confusion and sneaked on.
Lolita quickly fell silent as Sarah spoke. There wasn't much to say now either, given the fact that things had suddenly become serious business. However, the damn scout wouldn't shut up. "No. No sugar for you." Lolita flatly spoke. The oddity of the situation wasn't lost on her either; not a few moments ago, she was the one cracking jokes and making Sarah uncomfortable. Now, she was the one royally pissed off. 'The sooner a roach hops on his face and humps it the better I guess. Just the circle of life. she thought to herself.
The second bank of lights revealed more of the same, dust, dankness, and footprints, along with doors left undisturbed for probably a decade at the least. It was obvious that roaches sometimes ventured down this hallway, but the lack of their scratchy footprints back in the main passage meant they never went that far for some reason. Still, this meant that they were heading toward a place with more life, and, therefore, the possibility of survivors.
"I don't think anything's gonna jump at us, right now." Hotaru observed, wondering why everyone was being super-cautious, especially with her around. Nothing could stop Mr. Fwooshy, after all!
Still, up ahead, another dark section, though, two extra-dark spots on the walls hinted that there was another cross-hallway up ahead.
John moved farther up the hallway towards the next split. Saddened by the lack of candy and otherwise tasty treats, he decided he would go right once he got to the end of this hallway. "I'm going right, any objections? I can go left too I guess, doesn't matter too much I think."
Sarah shook her head, appearing a little more at unease than before, not sure she was liking the whole business of following roach tracks. She looked left and right, and waited for the rest of the squad to choose a direction. The polarized helmet, looked off towards Lolita, then to Hotaru, maybe ensuring they weren't up to their antics, before watching the rear again, with the other Marines. The whole situation made her wonder, why didn't they have a Sergeant in this squad?
Like Sarah, Lolita was also thinking of the situation at hand. Yes, she'd been a marine for quite some time. Seen her own fair share of deaths and weird shit, but there was always that question. How or why did the weird shit happen? In this case, it was roaches the size of a dog. Back when she was a little girl, they scared her senseless, but now the tables had somewhat turned now that she hefted body armor and several death dealing weapons. "Hey, guys, what do you think caused the roaches to get like this? I haven't seen anything like it before."
"Chemicals..." hissed Sarah, "It's always chemicals."
"Large doses of radiation!" piped in John cheerfully as he waited for the response to which direction he should take.
"Probably the low gravity and high-oxygen environment." Hotaru pointed out. "Happened back home a bunch, too. Exterminators made all kinds of bank." As they made their way to the cross-hall, Hotaru stopped, and sniffed the air. it smelled... different. "Hey, guys, You probably didn't notice, but... it smells like water or something... that way!" She pointed down the leftward hallway, squinting to look for a light switch in the dimness of the hallway. "hey, could somebody get a light?" the ethnically Japanese girl asked.
"You're the one with the plasmathrower, you could always just blow some fuel and make a light," John said gleefully as he skipped down the left hallway. This adventure thing had finally started to look like a lot of fun. He was quite enjoying it now and ignored most of the details as he quickly moved down the hallway.
"All I've got are medical supplies, don't look at me." groaned Sarah, looking around for some faint detail under the low amount of light. Everything was hard to pick out, and it was hard to look around, when half-ones attention was diverted to the floor, trying not to trip on anything.
A light illuminated their world as Lolita activated the little device strapped to her chest. "Really? You guys don't have a flashlight?" She asked, genuinely surprised. The situation had kept on shooting back and forward between serious and jovial. Though Lolita preferred the latter, she just wished it would stop and make up its mind! "Hey, Hotaru, where did you live at? Sydney IV or Neo-Tokyo III? I know both those places got their hands full of giant things. I sure as hell never had to deal with them." the marine asked, curious.
"They didn't give me one." Sarah snarled silently.
"I lived on a place called Hokutetsu station near Waypoint." Hotaru informed Lolita, as she searched the walls in Lolita's floodlight's range, finally finding a light switch. She flicked it on, and the lights flashed on for a few seconds, then buzzed and crackled, before popping and going out, a red emergency lighting replacing them, dimly illuminating the hallway up ahead.
The Blue-haired girl ranged ahead, following her nose toward the damper area up ahead. soon, they would begin picking up sounds of flowing water, and the outsides of the helmeted soldiers' visors would begin fogging slightly before the automatic defogging systems kicked in, the humidity of the hallway steadily increasing.
Soon, they arrived at a large door with elaborate signage. "Hot Springs." Hotaru read aloud in the dim light. "The hell they have something like this for?" she asked nobody in particular. "And why the hell is it still running?"
"This must be an ethnically Japanese part of the station or something. A little slice of home for you I guess." Lolita started. "Though, I sure as hell am not going to get in there. There's roaches at these facilities - it should have been shut down by the health department ages ago!" She joked. "Hey, Sarah, maybe if they bring this place up to snuff, you'd like to give it a try with me, eh?" Still, Hotaru had a point. "Mmm...Just why is it still working though?" she murmured to herself.
"W-what?" went Sarah, leaning a bit away from Lolita as she suggested such a thing. She gave a little, nervous laugh, "Ah... Sure... why not?" The Medic seemed to answer that in a fairly questioning way, shrugging her shoulders. With a few more steps, she looked around. "Maybe this place is a derelict resort or something. I mean... Stone interiors? It's all aesthetic, unnecessary."
"Oooo! Hot springs! Can we go for a dip? Mixed bath anyone? That would be awesome," stated John. Then more quietly "though I should probably keep on scouting so I don't get yelled at again. She's kinda mean...." He continued to scout ahead and did his best to look for little details in order to not seem incompetent.
Before they could move on, however, lights behind the doors turned on, and the elaborate signage illuminated, as if somebody else had turned it on. The humidity made it seem that there was someone here to take care of the place, and the fact that the lighting had gone out when they'd come down the hallway hinted that it might have been used more than the other lights, which had stayed on.
"Well... We are a search and rescue team. There might be somebody in there, so, it's not going to hurt to search it." Hotaru pointed out, pushing the door, which creaked open, and then walking inside.
Inside, the squad would first go through a much narrower hallway, lined with very old wood, before coming out inside of a rather large chamber, which was filled with steam. through the light fog, they could see a number of pools, as well as fake plants and rocks covered in moss and other moisture-loving plants. A few well-worn paths through the moss could be seen, which Hotaru followed to one of the pools, looking down into it.
"This is starting to get really weird." Lolita remarked. "I didn't expect you to say yes Sarah." The large Marine kept the pace though, and swept the area as they moved to clear it. Yes, it was either reasonably well maintained, or the systems simply aged well. Which she doubted. Doing her best to dispel the uneasy feeling in her gut, Lolita joked some more. "So, who are you, and what have you done to our Sarah?" she asked the medic behind her.
"Reese, we all know why you'd want to get into the hot springs, you little perv." Lolita remarked.
"Shut up." growled Sarah, averting whatever attentions she had in any direction but Lolita. The Medic was apparently not one for light humor. The walls around her seemed to change from stone bland surfaces, to something actually well-kept. Her mind began to race, trying to figure out the reason why they were in such a place. Was this even a rescue mis--
"Excuse me? Who's the mean one?" snapped Sarah.
"They give you really good food! Sometimes candy," responded John. "Not you Sarah", he said quietly, "Lolita is yelling at me a lot for not looking the part of a scout today." He continued to walk farther down the hall to avoid any repercussions from his last comment.
"That's because you've been a bad boy.~" Lolita quickly quipped.
John decided it was best to not respond to Lolita. Despite loving to talk a lot, John often found that ignoring her quips were the best way to stay cheerful.
"Tch." snarled Sarah.
Hotaru had, by now, removed the gauntlet and pressure glove from her right hand, after strapping Mr Fwooshy to her web gear, and bent down to test the water. An unseen grin on her face displayed her liking of the temperature, and before anyone could say anything, the web gear and armor were on the floor, and the Pressure suit was being quickly unzipped. Underneath, Hotaru wore a white bikini, rather than the standard Terran-issue underwear. She began to kick off her boots, before turning a bit to say to the squad "It's time for a break. The water's perfect."
Hotaru grinned as the pressure suit joined the rest of her clothes on the floor, and she splashed her way unceremoniously into the water.
"Hotaru." snapped the Medic, practically panicking at the sight of their highest ranked enlisted leading the charge into a... hot spring!? Sarah stomped her boot down on the floor. "What the hell! We don't get breaks until the mission's done, get out of the water!"
John waltzed in behind everyone else as a rear scout. He was surprised to see Hotaru in a bathing suit in the hot springs. "Um....should we really be having break time? I mean, we're still on duty and there's no tasty treats around. What's the fun in a break without candy?" He also wondered if her makeup would wash off. That would be a good thing he decided.
The Medic stopped for a moment, and took a deep breath, slinging her rifle over her shoulder to free up her hand so she could pat the sides of her helmet. She tried to clear up her mind of the minor fiasco, get her focus back on the mission at hand. After a few sighs, she unstrapped her rifle, and moved on, her mind becoming clear again.
As Sarah moved on, she would find herself coming to a corner, beyond which it was obvious there were no lights on. Just on the other side of the opening, she could see the light switch on the adjoining hallway's wall, ready to be flicked on, and aid them in their search.
Hotaru, for her part, continued to rub the top of her head, the sore bit where she was smacked throbbing slightly, but aside from that, she showed no signs of any injury, and walked along after Sarah, whom had managed to move quite a distance. Unlike Sarah, however, the Flamer walked straight down the middle of the hallway, unabashedly.
"Why'd you have to hit me too, Lolita?" Hotaru whined, looking back as some of the scouts returned to the squad, including the super-hyper Reese.
"Oi, Reese, why's the medic doing your job?" Hotaru called back at the twitchy scout.
"Good question. But she's probably better at it than I am. Plus, she seems a bit angry. Mostly at you. Kinda funny actually," he gave a giant, stupid grin and continued, "But I guess I should do my job right? Yeah, it would be smart." As he sauntered off to go find the medic, he tried to either match her stride or walk past her in order to appear like he was scouting.
As he neared the front, Sarah had seemed to calm down a bit so John considered it safe to take the lead without repercussion. "'Scuse me, scout coming through. Gotta do my job so I don't look useless, yes yes. Time to do my job....," he trailed off into silence as he began trying to concentrate on what was ahead instead of twitching.
The big marine watched Sarah go and sighed. "Because you were being an idiot. How do you think we all felt when we heard you screaming bloody murder?" Lolita's voicebox asked Hotaru. "Besides...I didn't hit you that hard, did I?" she asked, looking at her hand again. Regardless, she reached into a pocket and pulled out a rag. "Still, you really shouldn't be wearing shiny, sparkly makeup on the field, especially on your face! Do you think it's a good idea to have something shiny on your head in the middle of combat ops? No, I don't think so!"
Lolita moved to chase after Hotaru's face and wipe the sparkly (and possibly life threatening) makeup off of the smaller marine, barely taking notice of the wayward scout. "Hey, scrub, do your job then would you?" she spoke unkindly as he started to leave.
"Now, hold still Hotaru! It's gotta come off!"
Hotaru whined and batted Lolita's rag away. "Nope! Not gonna!"
Sarah chose to ignore the group in the back and the scout bypassing her. She only got angry when she talked to people, she'd have to work on that. At any rate, she looked around, checking for any idle movement before clearing the way across the hallway to flick on the switch with one gloved hand. There, some progress will get my mind back on track.
As the lights turned on, Sarah and Reese would notice something moving further down the hallway- It was a large, long, and low shaped thing with multiple spindly legs, colored brown, and sporting a head with bulging, rounded, compound eyes. Antennae twitched on its head, which turned toward the marines, before the Dog-sized creature began skittering its way toward them, for no apparent reason.
The Medic gave little time for reaction, quickly shouldering her rifle and firing a warning shot in the creature's path.
"Oh hey! The lights. Thanks Sarah! AHHHH A BUG!" shouted John as he grabbed his rifle off his back and took aim and fired wildly at the creature. Had he had time to set up his rifle and calm down, John would have made the kill on the first shot. However, in his current energetic state, he missed and used up half a magazine.
"Please, I just don't want a hole to be where your hea - " Lolita quickly turned towards the shooting as soon as it started, the rag dropping to the floor as she leveled the heavy machine gun she always carried, but didn't fire. 'Damn, they're in the way!'. The marine let the too inaccurate weapon drop, letting it catch on it's sling as her hands deftly drew out the sidearm she always carried.
The weapon's muzzle flashed three times as Lolita fired.
"Huh-Why's?" Hotaru spluttered, turning toward the group up ahead as they began firing, and then Lolita rushed past her, firing. Hotaru quickly followed behind her, getting Mr. Fwooshy ready, lighting the Pilot and opening the regulator.
The creature- now obviously an oversized Cockroach as it drew closer, deftly dodged Sarah's warning shots, avoided Reese's wild firings, but finally got hit by Lolita's sidearm, which blew a leg off and ruined a wing.
Hotaru, now ready, rushed forward and opened up with the plasma thrower, catching the bug on fire, turning it into a twitching pile of crispy protein in short order.
"Holy Shit, where'd you find this?" she exclaimed, sliding to a halt on the dusty floor, before kicking the carapace of the now dead bug with her steel-toed boot.
"The light made it appear!" whispered John frantically and then shot the carapace again for good measure. "Can't be too safe with dead things," he whispered.
"It was there when we cut the light on." reported the Medic, double-tapping two shots into the corpse of the roach.
John frantically nodded in agreement then looked around spazticly to try and pinpoint any more giant roaches of doom that might herald the apocalpyse.
The buxom marine practically growled at the smaller man, stepping up to him and making sure to cast him in her shadow. "Stop wasting ammo you scrub, and do your fucking job right." Lolita's earlier playful demeanor practically vanished for the moment as she shoved John forward with the butt of her weapon. "Take point, this mission just went hot." the woman pointed out, now stuffing her hair back into the helmet as it was donned. The expressionless faceplate turned to Sarah.
"You alright? Any bites?" Lolita asked.
"Huh?" the Medic looked up in a somewhat defenseless fashion up at Lolita. Sarah looked down at herself, and rubbed her calf against the other other. "Ah... I'm fine." With that, she simply stared up at the large woman before hesitantly following point again. "... Thanks."
Grumbling about filing a lawsuit against her, John skittered forwards and tried to look the part of a scout. Feeling that he should act far braver than he had just been, John opted the "badass" route, as he dubbed it in his mind, and scampered into the side passage quite making loud stepping sounds as he went.
As Reese made his loud way down the side passage, he would find it to be much smaller than the main passage, and, instead of rough-hewn from rock as the other was, it was more refined, with an actual wall covering of dull metal plating. He could see about 100 yards down the hallway, where it became dark again, though there would likely be a light switch near that point. along the walls on either side were a series of doors on either side, likely leading to storage rooms or the like.
There wasn't really much else in the hallway other than a thick coating of dust on the floor, interrupted near the walls by the footprints of the giant cockroaches.
Shuddering, John continued to move forward but with much less noise as he progressed down the passage. He tried to cover up the footprints of the giant cockroaches. It made him feel slightly safer. He progressed into the dark part of the passage and turned on his night vision before looking for a switch.
Lolita kept her heavy machine gun at the ready as they moved into the dark alley. Usually, pretty gals and dark alleyways didn't add up together well, but this instance was hopefully going to be different. After all, one had an assault rifle, another had a flamethrower, and the last one had a big honking spacegun.
Still, she couldn't help but note how they'd all fallen into a sort of 'formation' so to speak. John, the scrub, was up in front. Behind him was Lolita and Hotaru, both walking side by side, weapons ready, with Sarah in the center of the formation. The rear was brought up by the other two gentlemen, as it should have been considering Mcragge was the medic. Inside her helmet, she bit her lip as she thought over what she wanted to say in regards to the noob. Things weren't quite looking good.
"You dumbass, stop making noise! Women and dark alleyways don't go well together!" she hissed at him half playfully, half seriously.
Hotaru had left her helmet off, after all, they still had light, and she wasn't afraid of bugs so long as she had 'Mr. Fwooshy', even if they were the size of her family's guard dogs back on her home station. "Hey, dumbass" Hotaru whispered to Lolita. "You're being just as loud as he is." she pointed out, sticking her tongue out at the heavy marine.
As they walked down the hallway, Hotaru looked through the windows of the doors lining the hallway, noting that the rooms appeared to have been ransacked- destroyed packaging littered the floor, and the shelving units had been knocked over, but, judging by the dust, it had been quite a while since then, and there was no evidence of the doors having been used in a long while, so she left them alone.
"Shhhh." hissed Sarah at all of them from the back, not making much more noise than that. Noise carried in tight halls like this, and easy to pick up on with the kind of enemy they seemed to be faced with here. The Medic looked behind her, ensuring none of the disgusting insects were trying to sneak up on them, before turning back forward. She hummed gently to herself, not audible enough for her external speakers to really play it, but it kept her calm enough.
"I don't see anything up here, just some dust and bug footprints that I'm erasing" John said over the comms as he turned on the lights. "Shall I check out the storage rooms? Maybe there's some food or guns or something in them. Would be nice if there was some candy. I do love sugar...." he trailed off near the end. John never understood why people didn't want him having candy. It was just a tasty treat. He always felt so much more energetic after eating it though. Made him feel good too. Why would you not allow someone to have something hat makes them feel good? John only shook his head in confusion and sneaked on.
Lolita quickly fell silent as Sarah spoke. There wasn't much to say now either, given the fact that things had suddenly become serious business. However, the damn scout wouldn't shut up. "No. No sugar for you." Lolita flatly spoke. The oddity of the situation wasn't lost on her either; not a few moments ago, she was the one cracking jokes and making Sarah uncomfortable. Now, she was the one royally pissed off. 'The sooner a roach hops on his face and humps it the better I guess. Just the circle of life. she thought to herself.
The second bank of lights revealed more of the same, dust, dankness, and footprints, along with doors left undisturbed for probably a decade at the least. It was obvious that roaches sometimes ventured down this hallway, but the lack of their scratchy footprints back in the main passage meant they never went that far for some reason. Still, this meant that they were heading toward a place with more life, and, therefore, the possibility of survivors.
"I don't think anything's gonna jump at us, right now." Hotaru observed, wondering why everyone was being super-cautious, especially with her around. Nothing could stop Mr. Fwooshy, after all!
Still, up ahead, another dark section, though, two extra-dark spots on the walls hinted that there was another cross-hallway up ahead.
John moved farther up the hallway towards the next split. Saddened by the lack of candy and otherwise tasty treats, he decided he would go right once he got to the end of this hallway. "I'm going right, any objections? I can go left too I guess, doesn't matter too much I think."
Sarah shook her head, appearing a little more at unease than before, not sure she was liking the whole business of following roach tracks. She looked left and right, and waited for the rest of the squad to choose a direction. The polarized helmet, looked off towards Lolita, then to Hotaru, maybe ensuring they weren't up to their antics, before watching the rear again, with the other Marines. The whole situation made her wonder, why didn't they have a Sergeant in this squad?
Like Sarah, Lolita was also thinking of the situation at hand. Yes, she'd been a marine for quite some time. Seen her own fair share of deaths and weird shit, but there was always that question. How or why did the weird shit happen? In this case, it was roaches the size of a dog. Back when she was a little girl, they scared her senseless, but now the tables had somewhat turned now that she hefted body armor and several death dealing weapons. "Hey, guys, what do you think caused the roaches to get like this? I haven't seen anything like it before."
"Chemicals..." hissed Sarah, "It's always chemicals."
"Large doses of radiation!" piped in John cheerfully as he waited for the response to which direction he should take.
"Probably the low gravity and high-oxygen environment." Hotaru pointed out. "Happened back home a bunch, too. Exterminators made all kinds of bank." As they made their way to the cross-hall, Hotaru stopped, and sniffed the air. it smelled... different. "Hey, guys, You probably didn't notice, but... it smells like water or something... that way!" She pointed down the leftward hallway, squinting to look for a light switch in the dimness of the hallway. "hey, could somebody get a light?" the ethnically Japanese girl asked.
"You're the one with the plasmathrower, you could always just blow some fuel and make a light," John said gleefully as he skipped down the left hallway. This adventure thing had finally started to look like a lot of fun. He was quite enjoying it now and ignored most of the details as he quickly moved down the hallway.
"All I've got are medical supplies, don't look at me." groaned Sarah, looking around for some faint detail under the low amount of light. Everything was hard to pick out, and it was hard to look around, when half-ones attention was diverted to the floor, trying not to trip on anything.
A light illuminated their world as Lolita activated the little device strapped to her chest. "Really? You guys don't have a flashlight?" She asked, genuinely surprised. The situation had kept on shooting back and forward between serious and jovial. Though Lolita preferred the latter, she just wished it would stop and make up its mind! "Hey, Hotaru, where did you live at? Sydney IV or Neo-Tokyo III? I know both those places got their hands full of giant things. I sure as hell never had to deal with them." the marine asked, curious.
"They didn't give me one." Sarah snarled silently.
"I lived on a place called Hokutetsu station near Waypoint." Hotaru informed Lolita, as she searched the walls in Lolita's floodlight's range, finally finding a light switch. She flicked it on, and the lights flashed on for a few seconds, then buzzed and crackled, before popping and going out, a red emergency lighting replacing them, dimly illuminating the hallway up ahead.
The Blue-haired girl ranged ahead, following her nose toward the damper area up ahead. soon, they would begin picking up sounds of flowing water, and the outsides of the helmeted soldiers' visors would begin fogging slightly before the automatic defogging systems kicked in, the humidity of the hallway steadily increasing.
Soon, they arrived at a large door with elaborate signage. "Hot Springs." Hotaru read aloud in the dim light. "The hell they have something like this for?" she asked nobody in particular. "And why the hell is it still running?"
"This must be an ethnically Japanese part of the station or something. A little slice of home for you I guess." Lolita started. "Though, I sure as hell am not going to get in there. There's roaches at these facilities - it should have been shut down by the health department ages ago!" She joked. "Hey, Sarah, maybe if they bring this place up to snuff, you'd like to give it a try with me, eh?" Still, Hotaru had a point. "Mmm...Just why is it still working though?" she murmured to herself.
"W-what?" went Sarah, leaning a bit away from Lolita as she suggested such a thing. She gave a little, nervous laugh, "Ah... Sure... why not?" The Medic seemed to answer that in a fairly questioning way, shrugging her shoulders. With a few more steps, she looked around. "Maybe this place is a derelict resort or something. I mean... Stone interiors? It's all aesthetic, unnecessary."
"Oooo! Hot springs! Can we go for a dip? Mixed bath anyone? That would be awesome," stated John. Then more quietly "though I should probably keep on scouting so I don't get yelled at again. She's kinda mean...." He continued to scout ahead and did his best to look for little details in order to not seem incompetent.
Before they could move on, however, lights behind the doors turned on, and the elaborate signage illuminated, as if somebody else had turned it on. The humidity made it seem that there was someone here to take care of the place, and the fact that the lighting had gone out when they'd come down the hallway hinted that it might have been used more than the other lights, which had stayed on.
"Well... We are a search and rescue team. There might be somebody in there, so, it's not going to hurt to search it." Hotaru pointed out, pushing the door, which creaked open, and then walking inside.
Inside, the squad would first go through a much narrower hallway, lined with very old wood, before coming out inside of a rather large chamber, which was filled with steam. through the light fog, they could see a number of pools, as well as fake plants and rocks covered in moss and other moisture-loving plants. A few well-worn paths through the moss could be seen, which Hotaru followed to one of the pools, looking down into it.
"This is starting to get really weird." Lolita remarked. "I didn't expect you to say yes Sarah." The large Marine kept the pace though, and swept the area as they moved to clear it. Yes, it was either reasonably well maintained, or the systems simply aged well. Which she doubted. Doing her best to dispel the uneasy feeling in her gut, Lolita joked some more. "So, who are you, and what have you done to our Sarah?" she asked the medic behind her.
"Reese, we all know why you'd want to get into the hot springs, you little perv." Lolita remarked.
"Shut up." growled Sarah, averting whatever attentions she had in any direction but Lolita. The Medic was apparently not one for light humor. The walls around her seemed to change from stone bland surfaces, to something actually well-kept. Her mind began to race, trying to figure out the reason why they were in such a place. Was this even a rescue mis--
"Excuse me? Who's the mean one?" snapped Sarah.
"They give you really good food! Sometimes candy," responded John. "Not you Sarah", he said quietly, "Lolita is yelling at me a lot for not looking the part of a scout today." He continued to walk farther down the hall to avoid any repercussions from his last comment.
"That's because you've been a bad boy.~" Lolita quickly quipped.
John decided it was best to not respond to Lolita. Despite loving to talk a lot, John often found that ignoring her quips were the best way to stay cheerful.
"Tch." snarled Sarah.
Hotaru had, by now, removed the gauntlet and pressure glove from her right hand, after strapping Mr Fwooshy to her web gear, and bent down to test the water. An unseen grin on her face displayed her liking of the temperature, and before anyone could say anything, the web gear and armor were on the floor, and the Pressure suit was being quickly unzipped. Underneath, Hotaru wore a white bikini, rather than the standard Terran-issue underwear. She began to kick off her boots, before turning a bit to say to the squad "It's time for a break. The water's perfect."
Hotaru grinned as the pressure suit joined the rest of her clothes on the floor, and she splashed her way unceremoniously into the water.
"Hotaru." snapped the Medic, practically panicking at the sight of their highest ranked enlisted leading the charge into a... hot spring!? Sarah stomped her boot down on the floor. "What the hell! We don't get breaks until the mission's done, get out of the water!"
John waltzed in behind everyone else as a rear scout. He was surprised to see Hotaru in a bathing suit in the hot springs. "Um....should we really be having break time? I mean, we're still on duty and there's no tasty treats around. What's the fun in a break without candy?" He also wondered if her makeup would wash off. That would be a good thing he decided.