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Lazarus Effect: Part 1

Across the street from the Pine residence in House 3

Aster heard the gunshots and the cries. She had pulled on her undersuite by now and she slid a the magazine into the rifle and chambered a chem-rail round. She frowned. Her thoughts were conflicting.

Remain in place.

Someone just got horribly injured or died.

Do not engage.

There are 3 pregnant women and 2 children.

Saber is coming.

She rose from her spot on the floor clutching the rifle in her hands. She chewed on her lower lip. She sent Jay another encrypted message, "Jay! How much longer? They are dying!" She paced. The young woman stared at the trap door.

Stay hidden.

People are dying.

Do not engage.

My friends are dying.

She lingered on the stairs. And thought hard about her options. Could she make up the difference?

Amit, Rose, Isabella, Neera are in danger.

She unlocked the trapdoor. What can I do? Do I have a spare ECS in here? Do I have one of the harnesses we were working on? Mom gave me a means to fight. I am not 8 years old any more.
 

Across the street from the pine residence, on top of house 3



The magnetic bi-pod was deployed, and the “Deliverance” GP-1 rifle was set up. It was a primitive weapon by comparison of some of the higher end guns Creature had seen in his time. Though the first one he had handled, quickly became his favored offensive option in these trying times. The weapon was excellently crafted. The actions smooth, and the recoil minimal considering the .50 caliber rounds it spat out allowing it to have anti-material capability. Creature was no sniper like his love, however he could make highly accurate and precise shots with the deliverance at these ranges of only twenty meters or so away. He switched the scope to zoom, and changed the viewfinder to read heat signatures. The .50 caliber rounds could punch through wall and structure like nothing. A power armor would feel it since the weapon had anti-material capacity. Of the three deliverance rifles Lukina had acquired, one of them was horrible damaged and had to be sent off. This second weapon, Creature cherished due to it being quite special. What Creature favored about it most was that is was Semi-automatic, and with an expanded magazine, made a very effective assault rifle.


It had taken Creature some time to get here, but the general call for help and “Jack Pine”. Creature watched and aimed as Lazarus terrorized the house. But it was hard to take a shot due to the fact there were friendlies scurrying around. Creature aimed, and finally had an opportunity. It was shortly after Lazarus popped the weasel. Creature was aiming for a small target on the augment, his neck. Creature had heard something Jack’s struggles with Lazarus, and reckoned that a single shit may not kill him, but he could cause enough pain to make him pause. A fifty caliber round would punch through brick and mortar aimed at the monster, then a thunderous report would crash into the area.

After firing his shot, Creature stood, flipped the bi-pod up, and hopped off the roof of the house, then began advancing, rifle at the ready. He advanced cautiously as the SS Eyesore hovered over head. “Jump Team is ready Lord!” The back up called in.

“Uuuuh #%^€ing hold off a bit. Got civilians in the area. Imma F%#$ing figure this out.” Creature responded.


The Gartagen augment did not have his navy coat anymore. He advanced wearing his armor, the strength enhancing framework visible without the jacket to obscure it. His Edjia pistol was gone as well, and gave way to a dusty old Sharan scatter gun, but across his back could be seen that heavy double handed sword he called “Gift”.
 
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Adilis was watching out the window when Lazarus broke in, watching the desert out there covered by, maybe filled with the twinkling darkness above that made the night sky. Adria was simply laying on the bed. As soon as Jack started shouting, their antennae twitched and they instantaneously looked to the doorway in their room. Adilis froze with fear, while Adria narrowed her eyes. After the gunfire started, Adria asked "Is that... oh crap..." She looked around the room, then locked onto the window. "Adilis, take off you're shoes, we're going for a climb," Adria commanded. "B-but-" Adilis whimpered, only to be interrupted by Adria yelling "JUST DO IT!" They both removed their socks and shoes, then Adria opened up the window so she could climb out. Tiny little bones meant for insect-climbing abilities came out of their palms and the soles of their bare feet. It took a little bit of effort due to their wings and the way they folded, but they both managed to squeeze out of the window and stuck to the wall like they were bugs- mostly because they were. They climbed up the wall and reached the roof on all fours, then they proceeded to the center of the roof and eyed the edges of the house with their crimson eyes, watching for any activity and wincing with their antennae twitching at the sounds of screams and gun fire.
 
Jay was in full crisis mode, maintaining continuous contact with Reichardt and patching in various team leaders to the limited scanning equipment in his house. Hearing Aster's messages and noticing her movement from her hiding place, he responded in a wavering tone.

"Aster. I can see everything that's going on. Saber is en route as we speak. We might all die if we don't act carefully. Jack and Sarah have ST, if it makes you feel any better. Anyways, do you have any close range weapons over there? Please advise."

Returning to his line with Reichardt, he continued with increasing urgency.

"Jack and Sarah are down, but it looks like we've got some backup on hand. See that contact over Creature? Try to make contact, see if we can coordinate."

As he continued, Jay was slowly starting to crack under the pressure...
 
Across the street from the Pine residence in House 3

Aster stopped, she heard the thumping on her roof. Hold or we will all die.

She stared at the trapdoor above her and responded to Jay over the secure commslink, "I have a pile of chem-rail guns. Mom sent me a crate of PACT weapons but the closest range I have are chem-rail pistols. I don't count my prototype gauntlet but that's about it. I'll hold position." She relocked the trapdoor and sat down on the stairs.
 
One moment, Creature was there, and the next, he wasn't. Something about a distress call? He was too busy trying to figure out what else to buy for the girls to entirely notice the Gartagen leaving, and now, he was lost! Absolutely lo - the cracks and and pops of firearms told him everything he needed to know.

Where there was Gunfire, there was a Creature!

Pine Residence,
Front Door

The moment they heard the massive boom from the Gartagen's distant rifle, everything seemed to fall silent as something far more horrifying came into view. Without a single sound, the floating form of a terror from the past hovered before the threshold of the home. Watching them with its beady eyes, the monster's armored carapace gleamed as it moved to get a better view of the scene in the living room in full. Its kind had swept across known space not once, but twice, consuming whole worlds, pillaging their cities and raping the residents. The combined might of the sector's nations, Yamatai included, barely held them back, and now, one - just one - floated in the doorway, its many tentacles writhing like snakes as it held onto a GP-1 rifle in one tentacle. There was also a cheese and fruit basket being held in another while a third adjusted the grape patterned baseball cap with the words 'Grape Time!' emblazoned on the front.

"What the fuck?" an unseen man exclaimed, his voice unnaturally clear. Bob aimed its rifle at Lazarus.
 
In the Air Above Jack's Residence
Freya had decided to come along to watch Lazarus work out his "family issues" so she had taken a back seat and sat on one of her drones in the air for a nice view of the show.
Seeing the Mishu show up she would frown. "That's going to be a problem." With that she would call down drones to shield Lazarus from the creature. They would attempt to block the Mishu from the combat. Chirping and buzzing at it to get it's attention.
 
Ven watched calmly from the nearby house. The security response was certainly on it's way and they had hit an unexpected snag. She weighed the options and decided it was time. She slid out of the house and threw back the tarp. She climbed inside the Starbrite and took off, once in the air, just above the roofs of the houses, the engines lit and she jetted forward the short distance to hover over the Pine house. She fired the machine gun, with a mounted repeating grenade launched slung under it, wildly. Spraying the neighborhood with fire, and hopefully encouraging people to keep their heads low. "Laz, it's time to go." She said into the encrypted commlink that kept Lazarus, Freya, and herself connected.
 
Lazarus took the Caelisolan's punch, and he reacted by batting Isabelle aside just before taking the force of the 50 cal. round to the back of the shoulder forcing him to stumble. Rose's blade would instead penetrate his side, causing him turn on her and slam her into the wall before being pelted with rounds from Bob's GP-1. "Some backup would be nice ladies!", Lazarus shorted over his comm as he raised his arms crossed before him as he slowly backpedaled.

"Jay, I need an assist damn it! One KIA, several injured! Move your ass, people are dying!" Jack shouted over the comm via Geist as he loaded a fresh mag. His adrenaline flooded system rushing as he was both terrified and angered. This thing had killed his sister who was pregnant, assaulted his wife, attacked his close friends, and threatened his family.

Neera watched in horror for a moment as she tried processing what she saw. The white furred wolf anthro flinched as her adoptive mother was struck, her aunt murdered before her eyes, and her future aunt Rose beaten. As Amit pulled at her to go up stairs, she cried, helpless once more. It was like her dad's Geist implantation all over again, with her helpless to do anything as pain was inflicted on her family.
 
Above Jack's Residence
"I'm not helping you until you tell me why you're here doing this. You are in a lot of trouble with Mr.Romanov already due to the shenanigans you pulled here already and if you don't give me a good reason on as to why you're doing this I have to take you in right now."
 
Rose bounced off the wall with a bone-sucking crunch as her dislocated joints reset, and she immediately stood, summoning the knife back to her hand as she glared, panting. It took a moment to process who was in the fray, and who wasn't getting back up.

The presence of a Mishhuvurthyar barely registered as she shook off Bob's too clear words. "My fiancé... My twins.... I'm gonna FUCKING CASTRATE YOU!"

Her challange would echo out the door as she leapt forward to slash wildly with her blade. "I'm going to sodomize you with your own skull, you worthless animal!"
 
Tugging on Neera, he could hear crying out but his own voice didn't want to work as large tears poured down his face. He didn't want to go back to that place but he didn't want to stay here. Trembling as he stood there, he tried grabbing at her arm. Just tugging and pulling on her, trying to get her attention as he stood there next to her.

"NEERA!!!" Amit finally screamed out.

Staring up at her, his green eyes wide and filled with fear. The only reason he stayed by her was due to trying to be of some use, he may have forgotten about the other two kids. But neera was right here, he couldn't forget her. Course, he was doing everything he could not to look back at where the fighting was going on.
 
Izzy slammed into a wall when she was batted aside, her wings wrapping around her to protect her stomach if needed, she was dazed for a moment as she heard Amit yelling at Neera. They needed to get upstairs, quickly. She stood shakily, steadying herself quickly and made her way to the stairs.

"Come on, both of you. You need to hide," Izzy said, she wondered where the other two kids were but considering they weren't in sight they were safe for the moment. She spread her wings to block what was going on further down the stairs.
 
Corgan happened to be on 188604 settling some final business with the local law enforcement. They had received the distress signal while he was visiting. He darted out of the front door, cybernetic legs carrying him far faster than humanly possible. Not towards the signal but to his ship. Once he was inside he suited up in his Impulse armor and grabbed the HPAR 33 he preferred to use.

It didn't look good for a crime like this to happen under the High Sheriff's nose. He was about to give up the position but so far he hadn't told anyone. The Half ID-SOL was pissed that someone had picked tonight to go kill some people. With it being Jack Pine he was worried about local terrorism.

He walked down the ramp and launched into the air, flying towards the Director's home. At top atmospheric speed, it took him a few minutes to arrive. He stopped in a hover outside and locked on to the shuttle firing at the area. Corgan cursed. "Wendy, give me a quick rundown of what I have in my Strela Pods." He ordered the suit's AI.

"Certainly. You have a total of 38 mini-missiles. 10 Anti-Armor Antimatter munitions, 10 Electro-Gravimetric Pulse munitions, 8 Multi-countermeasures, 5 Smoke Particle Cloud Munitions, and 5 General Purpose High Explosives," the pleasant female voice replied.

Corgan selected the Electro-Gravimetric Pulse munitions and launched a volley of 3 missiles at the shuttle. He pulled back to see what kind of damage the attack did.
 
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Creature moved rapidly. “Bob, keep pressing him!” He grunted as he sped towards the house. Still on the Thermal, Creature move, and tumbled so that he was flanking the home. Only ten meters away, Creature began squeezing the trigger in rapid succession. The rifle reported rapidly, Creature aiming his shots directly at Lazerus. The rounds would crash through the dwelling leaving large holes in the siding, shattering glass. He’d have enjoyed it, if it wasn't for the fact that somebody had just gotten curbstomped right in front of him


Creature would then cease his barrage of Lazarus and leap up to the second story crashing through the bedroom window and landing on the floor. He shook off the glass shards, and tossed his rifle over his back. Guns would not stop this guy, and this dwelling meant that using his big heavy double-hander would not cut it. Creature then reached behind his back and flicked his Sheska out with his good hand. He could stop bullets and survive, but Creature knew well enough he could take anything apart with a bladed weapon. Creature clinched his maimed hand - now equipped with a mechanical prosthetic, and his Zesu-enameled riot shield zipped out with a loud clicking, deploying in full.. “Alright dick head, I’m creaming my fucking pants to get at you.” Creature muttered to himself as he advanced.
 
Like an unstoppable horror, the Mishhuvurthyar simply slid through the air towards the deranged man at frightening speed, battering aside furniture and people alike with it's unflinching mass alone. As the rifle in one limb fired away to stun Lazarus, many others worked up into a frenzy, slapping any chirping, buzzing drones that got too close. Whipping a limb out to yank Rose aside, its beady eyes were locked on him as it grabbed both couches, sending them sailing through the air like a pair of big, heavy torpedoes to batter the man off his feet.

"He's armored! Light him up!" Bob's Nepleslian voice shouted at Creature. The edgy looking scythe was dangerous, but it only needed one good opportunity to grab and throw Lazarus straight through a wall and out the building entirely!
 
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The cyborg had arrived a tinge late as a massive swarm had already begun to amass within the Pine household, more and more signatures appearing, many of them foreign to him and ranging from Gartagen to Misshu, leaving Beaumont more than confused. In the center of it all, a single man vaguely resembling his boss. Before he knew it, one of the signatures had leapt like a beast towards the second floor. An armor flew overhead, targeting the figure. It was mass chaos - and more than likely, whoever it was that was killed would probably be Beaumont's responsibility to ST.

He took a step back and pocketed his scalpels as all he could do was watch.

But then he remembered who was involved in the incident. The folks that were being attacked.

As distant as he wanted to be from it all... there was no real choice.

Through the window, he could look in at the din. On the floor, the vital signs of not one - but three - individuals were fading. His heart dropped then and there at the carnage. One he could revive, but without the genetic code of the other two, he'd be unable to recover the children, and even he would not dissect an already mangled body such as that.

Beaumont pockets his scalpels before he looks up to see that another three vital signs were upstairs. Here's his chance to do something helpful. He stepped back and, using his cybernetic legs, hopped up and grappled one of the bedroom windows. Of course, his climb wasn't very graceful, and the appearance of a dark-armored individual busting through the glass and clambering through unexpectedly isn't one that suggests assistance, but what more could he do? He hoisted himself in, scanning around for Neera. If he could do anything in this situation, it's protect her. Jack would want that.

He steps forward towards Izzy, Neera, and Amit, standing near the top of the stairs and beckoned them all towards the room he just emerged from, looking almost foreboding with his solemn posture. As far as he could tell, he hadn't met her, but she was protecting Jack's kids, nor is anyone attacking her, so she mustn't be of any harm. "I'd suggest coming in here to hide." His mask opened for a moment to reveal his mouth, hoping the slight humanity to his appearance would provide a hint of comfort. "I'll protect the door." With that, the mask closed once more.
 
Rose let loose another incoherent yell of rage as a tentacle wrapped around her and dragged her out of the path of two flying couches, into a mass of writhing, waiting, and surprisingly soft tentacles. One tip was sliced completely off, another was bisected as Rose tried to fight her way free and make good on her threats.

For the forseeable future, Rose's adrenaline fuelled thrashing would continue, unconscious of her skin starting to pale and her strikes beginning to weaken. Monomolecular blades fresh out of the box often had a lubricating oil on them. More often than not, this had a mild anticougulant property, which allowed the rather minor stab wound through the top of Rose's shoulder to continue to bleed.

The normally pristene lab coat was now a red harlequin and the tentacles holding her were beginning to become slippery as she continued to struggle and scream.
 
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Already near the breaking point, Jay was ready to scream at Jack when he heard him on the comms. "God dammit Jack I'm doing everything I can! Saber Alpha and Bravo on the way, ETA in three." After clearing his head, he took a moment to evaluate his options. A single sentence came to mind.

War isn't about killing the people you hate. It's about protecting those you love.

In that moment, he knew what he had to do. Grabbing his guns and putting on his helmet, he fired off one last message to Aster before going silent.

"You're right, Aster. No one else needs to die today."
 
Ven swore as the makeshift missile warning that they had rigged went off. She hit the button to fire counter measures. The first exploded into a dense black cloud that obscured vision and made missile tracking nearly impossible within about fifty meters. The second was energetic flack and metal that would hopefully confuse the proximity sensors into exploding early. Then she dipped the shuttle down below the roof and level with the second floor. The explosions of the mini-missles hitting the flack and destroying every piece of unshielded electronics in the area. The shields around the shuttle flickered, but protected the shuttle. "Their coming for us. We can't fight a legion." She observed as she launched three more canisters of black obscuring smoke that would confuse missiles.
 
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