RP: Die Screaming [Die Screaming] Red death part II: To Die For So Little.

Hangar/void
Otto

floating through the now shattered hangar, Otto pushed from container to container, with his luck seeming to come in handy, the Older vet noticed the body of a young marine who had joined them in the shuttle. the young man's face contorted with a frozen grimace of agony as his youth was stolen in an instant. removing the mans oxygen tank, Otto used the reserve tank and valve to jettison through the hall way, following the Young Marksman into the broken Bowels of the Shi[p.

the hallways flickering lights, flashed, illuminating the Ornate doorways and corridor, before the second flash came. the corridors of older Yamataian design, the feeling of seeming out of his Element and the naked feeling of being unarmed. key triggers from a memory long gone now, his introduction to the stepfather, siblings and mother of his lover. the experience being one he would never forget.

The third flash came back to the shattered remains of the kuvexian ship they had successfully destroyed. Lupins shaky voice came over his short range radio, the entertainment clear on his face. seeing or better yet hearing his comrade search for their medic and possibly the young mans crush. the innocence of the thought seemed to entertain him, despite the sheer level of wanton destruction the Armored infantry and IPG attache had managed to pull. quietly, Otto stalked the hall before seeing a second shadowy figure appear, seeing no light from the figure, it was obvious was not Pvt.Kennedy therefore in Ottos mind, an enemy. closing distance it made more sense to appear as though he was another floating corpse. The figure had seemed to fixate down the corridor to where the young Private was headed. drawing his service blade from he armored suit, the figure continuing to stalk the halls, before the feeling of metal meeting metal shot through Ottos armored glove. the long blade pressing into the spine of the Kuvexian EVA suit. twisting the blade and separating bone, he retracted the blade sending it once more into the neck of the poor crewman, quickly and thanks to the void of space, quietly.

Ship Exterior - Tobias

Tobias' travels were short and uneventful after his brief encounter. The corridor leading to the outside of the ship was lined with enough hatches to give pause but with a single open exception; The likely source of his kuvexian encounter, all were sealed from the insides as whatever AI dictated the ship in its death throwes likely sealed every and all compartmentalized hatch in a desperate attempt to minimalize losses and damage.

That one exception was also a dead-end and little more than a sizeable equipment room with its contents spewn about in the form of vague hoses, cables, and coils that twisted into medusan knots and seemed a quick source of entrapment should anyone try to push or navigate through in zero-gravity. What he did find was only slightly further down as the ship simple... Ceased...

A great chasm of emptiness took over as the floor, ceiling, and walls had been stripped away and thrown into the void that it was now exposed to as open space encompassed all for hundreds of meters where on the other side the other half of the ship stood static; A single sliver of the reinforced hull just barely perceivable hundreds of meters bellow connecting the two halves and keeping the hulks from drifting apart.

Not that it would matter, the ship was a write-off no matter how many halves it still had.

What was interesting however was in the dead center between the two halves a perfect, unflawed, and smooth sphere of white material floated perfectly still between the two hulks. It seemed devoid of movement and despite how he strained his senses Tobias was unable to tell its distance or size and depending on how long he looked at it the more it seemed to baffle the senses.

It, whatever it was, was clearly formed from the fusion of a high-yield antimatter charge and an active aether reactor. An educated guess would naturally assume it was zesuaium; The nearly indestructible meta-material used by the Yamatain Star Empire and the Interstellar Kingdom of Kuvexia.

It was what the ships outer hull was made of, and while its creation was unknown to any but the secretive artisans of those factions it was known for being nearly impossible to break, and completely impossible to reforge or reshape.

In all likelihood that ball of the sectors most powerful material had been broken down and reforged at the molecular level by the sheer untamed power of a critically expanding aether reactor and had been reformed by the implosion; Smothering the blast inside its indestructible carapace; Saving the kuvexian fleet from what was supposed to destroy everything for over a hundred thousand kilometers and only allowing the destruction of the former host of its core, the one cruiser.

The odds of those phenomena occurring were so astronomical they shouldn't even be considered possible, and to any scientist outside of the YSE and its knowledge of both aether and zesuaium would agree with you.

Such things were better left to the geeks at NAM to worry about.

Prying his eyes away from one of the newest wonders of the sector, Tobias managed to carefully scale his way onto the outer hull of the ship where the signal was at its strongest. In the distance, distant pinpricks of light signaled that someone was still fighting but at such a ways away the outcome was impossible to tell.

Moreover, glancing down the length of the ship's hull, barely a few dozen meters away a lone figure stood backdropped against its silver hull.

The figure was staring directly at Tobias.


Hangar- Anatevka, Louis

The fighting had ceased.

From their hiding spot under the protective wing of the shuttle their front-row seat had given them a clear view of the golden figures; A second one having joined the slaughter of their fellows and comrades and expedited the death of marines and reds alike.

It had turned to just one again as a lucky marine had caught one of the bastards with a lucky shot to the face with an under-barrel plasma launcher, giving some an ounce of desperate hope that the last would meet a similar fate.

Lady luck was known to be blind, however. And shortly after the only living being in the hangar was the lone golden god.

And those like Anatevka and Louis who played dead or remained hidden. The enemy pilot however was not satisfied with the completion of his slaughter, however, and slowly drifted around the hangar in search of new outlets to vent his frustration on as was evident when only a few dozen meters away the pilot plunged his glaive between some cargo still netted to the ground and began to thrust vigorously as a stream of automatic gunfire answered back as whoever was hidden fought desperately to keep their death at bay.

After a few more thrusts the firing stopped and the pilot pulled away in search of new prey.

Their hiding place would no doubt be uncovered sooner rather than later and was made evident when the thrusters of the shuttle began to idle, Windchime no doubt intending to escape before that happened.

The necromancy of the seemingly empty shuttle did not go unnoticed however as the golden suit of armor whirred to face them.

Ship Interior - Locust

This was wrong!

Everything was going so veryveryveryveryveryveryveryveryvery WRONG!

Her doll was supposed to be pure. Supposed to be innocent. Supposed to be an untainted and uncorrupted soul meant for her to have and to savor.

The harlott before her was none of those things. She was vile and crass and was just another twisted and lost soul of their society.

The gesture she gave Locust and the incessant jabbing had been the final straw upon discovering her little lamb, her sweet and beautiful doll and its once perfect soul had grated her upon this act that the sheer force of her teeth clenching in frustration cracked one of her canines.

Abigail had promised she could have a new outlet. She had promised Locust...

Locust? How long had it been she could recall her real name? How many years, decades even had it been since Abigail; Since Duece and her master had recruited her from the hospital?

They knew what was wrong with her, knew she wasn't safe, knew about her urges and how they drove her to madness. How many times had they indulged those urges? Gave her dolls and new toys like this one to pour her impurity into in order to keep her soul clean? And in return why had she thought it a good trade to keep dying her soul black for what she knew was wrong? Could she not simply purify her soul one last time and not turn to black?

How many times had she had that very thought? Locust was sick, she knew she was sick. Sick in a way the medicines never could fix.

But she knew a way that always made her mind clear, made all things right in the end.

Wrong as the little lamb before her was, Locust knew she wasn't always impure. Abigail had yet to mislead her and had always chosen the perfect ones for her cleanse before this one hiccup. So she would indulge, albeit reluctantly. And she would take Abigails toy away afterward as was only right.

Ship Interior - Carina

At first nothing happened. The bitches grip had flexed; Loosening and tightening from time to time allowing some reprieve from her agony only to seem to focus in on her again. It was frankly unsettling how little attention the operator seemed to be paying attention to her despite the earlier attack.

Was it possible Elsae was the cause or was she just so fucked in the head she was having some fucked up and cliche monologuing session or some shit?

The answer had yet to arrive when the vice-like grip of the operators 'netic tightened again, the talons of its feet puncturing her suit in a swift motion without preamble and digging shallow gouges into her sides as Locust seemed to come back to reality. The sudden and steady loss of pressure in her suit was the least of her worries as with fluid grace the operator silently placed a sympathetic hand to cup where Carina's cheek would be.

And then a sudden twitch of her head and neck was the only movement she made. The grip of her death instrument loosening just barely enough to alleviate some of the pressure but still keep her locked against the wall as a small oxygen meter on her suit's HUD alerted her she was losing a startling reserve of her suits atmosphere fast.

It was at this time that Lupin, with Otto in tow passed by the room's hatch, Glancing in just long enough to appraise the dark contents of the room before seemingly beginning to pull away before the light of Carina's suit gave away her position.

They found Carina like that, pinned to a wall by the motionless statue of an operator; One massive cybernetic pinning her to the wall while the other was clamped into the decks plating securing her in place as a nearly immovable object. At such a close enough proximity their comms could just barely make out each other's voices as though across a large room.

The clock was now ticking...


Ship Interior - Otto, Lupin.

Sebastian watched the gold armor as it finished off the crooked demon. He was about to launch himself at the enemy armor when he found an error message. His jets were malfunctioning. Cursing to himself he quickly tried to diagnosis the problem, but by the time he figured out what was wrong and fixed it the golden armor had already moved inside the ship. "Oh no you don't." He murmured.

Launching himself forward, he followed the armor into the hanger. Firing a salvo from his machine gun he roared as he attempted to draw the armor's attention. "Over here you piece of shit!" He roared, following up his shots with a few mini missiles.

Abby's Creepy Closet Mental Asylum of Solitude

Carina's look hadn't changed in the moments before Locust finally reacted. The murderess's death-like grip on her battered torso loosening for a brief, and precious moment of release from the pain and pressure eased. And then it closed again and the pressure resumed. The agony returned. Flex, release, close, pain. Tears glistened at the edges of her eyes. At each rinse and repeat of pain and its sweet but brief release, each time she felt her legs spasm and toes curl to the point they threatened to pop.

With the final application of pressure, the medic let forth a pain-wracked sob to which she immediately regretted. She gasped and felt as if knives were shooting through her chest as she breathed. While some small part of her had wondered if the miffed Savtech was the one affecting this sudden still creepified change or if the crazy bitch was considering her options. Going with the former and ever the semi-optimist, Carina egged her friend on.

That bit of encouragement had lasted all but two seconds as the pressure tightened, the vice being screwed closer and the dual pressure of her back against plating, and the talon'd foot on her chest. Her breathing came in quick, shallow gasps each of which felt as if she were being jabbed repeatedly with a blade. Then it became the real thing. Her HUD warned a split second before an all-new sensation of pain joined the chorus of her chest being slowly compressed. She had cut herself more than once over the years trying to practice her knife tricks or helping Suku with patients as a kid. Carina had thought herself made of stern stuff when dealing with the shallow cuts she usually suffered. Feeling as if you were being carved like a Lewis Pasco Day ham exacerbated things beyond mere pain.

The HUD continued its warning. Through some moment of lucidity, her mind put two and two together. Her air was quickly leaking, something having pierced the suit, and now she had fresh wounds. The barest beginnings of a laugh of the truly desperate rumbled in her throat as she floated a hand down to one of her wounded sides. The gesture was a bit futile but still symbolic. Some of her precious blood now floated freely from the wounds all thanks to a little puff of air pressure and zero-g. With what she could do with her left arm, the pain being what it was, she began to pat down her pouches. Did this thing even come with some kind of patching kit?!

But then, did it even matter at this point? She was wounded. Her air was depleting quickly and she was trapped by some cybernetic horror straight out of a slasher flick. Her head was already hurting from whatever the Savtech was attempting to do. If that was even what was causing this whole situation. Death seemed almost assured despite the fingers of her free hand went about seeing if there was anything left on her to work with. Anything to prolong her life just a bit longer. If this was indeed the end of her days. Oh, how she wanted mutually assured destruction if it were possible unless she or her AI companion could somehow get her out of this particular situation. In which case, she'd still want the psycho bitch to burn to cinders from a safe distance and enjoy the show.

The patting of her belt continued, her head shifting just a little as she tried to look down while trying not to wiggle around too much. Her attention it seemed was entirely on her own survival, the dark beyond the room, and what lurked at the hatch. A Lulu and his guardian angel of doom going unnoticed while she shakily tried to work her hand.

Still unaware of his Guardian Spook practically beheading a Kuvexian and saving his life Lupin coninued moving through the ship, horripilated skin pressing uncomfortably into his suit's interior, less than perfect climate control systems having a hard time wicking the moisture away from the lad's light-mocha hide resulting in a thin sheen of sweat. With no atmosphere to carry sound and no audio-synthesis suite to translate the smallest of vibrations Lupin had almost walked past the room where the Los Apagos medic was being squeezed like a tube of toothpaste.

There was an initial sigh of relief before the angry, red flare was tossed into the room, bouncing off a few bits of scattered gear before losing most of its momentum.

What Lupin saw made his medically oversized heart skip a few of its slow, powerful beats.

The flare didn't so much illuminate Locust's form as much as it lit up everything but the Operative, her Britva's dark plates seemingly sucking in all the light that would otherwise be absorbed to highlight the chicken-legged cyborg.

Raising his M3 from low-ready and gripping around its handguard Lupin took some floaty steps further into the room, flicking it to full-auto and keeping the barrel trained on the towering being of darkness he called out, voice barely recognizable over the struggling communications systems, "Le.. ...r go... ...u assho..." the surprised and angry teen shouted out, but didn't exactly give the Operative a lot of time to respond, she was half-way through making Carina's chest even flatter already so in his mind there was only one course of action he was going to resort to.

Taking in one defiant lung-full of Oxygen Lupin squeezed the trigger once, twice, Lupin's wiry frame kept the muzzle trained on the side-profile of Locust's torso as his finger worked away at emptying his magazine in bursts. Each angry plume of gas pushed him backwards and threatened to topple the lad if it weren't for his careful footwork, lack of air causing Lupin's suppressor to quickly start glowing an angry red, barely noticable under the red glow his flare was still casting over the room. Maybe it was a rogue signal, maybe it was all the electromagnetic interference or maybe the usually quiet Master Kennedy was just that pissed, but something was causing his mic to light up and remain lit for the duration of his expertly controlled magazine dump...

Ship Exterior - Tobias

The adrenaline was beginning to fade from Tobias' system now, and the dislocated arm was beginning to scream at him again, but he still persisted in moving forward and taking cover behind a piece of hull and gripped his ZARCNAM tighter. Leaning out from behind the metal, Tobias squinted at the figure which was looking at him, prompting the Britva's helmet to zoom in on the figure, revealing it to be another operator in Britva.

Transferring the rifle to his dislocated hand, he gripped the piece of cover and kicked off, using his good arm to hook himself around and propel himself towards the figure, briefly flashing a 'friendly' signal with his lights. As he drifted closer, he reached out an arm towards the figure, both to stop his movement and to initiate secure contact-communication.

"This is Alpha 1-3, who is this? What's the status of the operation?" He inquired, the pain somewhat audible in his voice.

Ship Interior - Carina, Otto, Lupin.

Lupins pre-firing and subsequent unloading were cathartic at best for a bad situation. Round slammed seemingly harmless into the flank of the operator's armor and against her cybernetic instruments of death as effectively as if he were pounding his fist into sand.

The momentum however did shift her in a way Carina had not been able to as the static operator slowly started to tilt and shift in the gravity as if falling over in slow motion. Eventually, she had twisted enough that carina was able to slide and wiggle free of her grasp and solve one of many issues piling up. Her oxygen shortage being the biggest concern was at least a delayable death thanks to Otto's spare oxygen tank he had been using for propulsion and some quick scrounging and salvaging from dead Kuvexians to not quite patch the holes but at least ease the flow of escaping air from an alarming level to only a concerning one.

Even her bleeding had been quelled when her contracting muscles and tissue had frozen shut; She couldn't even feel that pain anymore which was both a relief and another soon-to-be emergency she would have to tackle if...

When she got out of this mess.

Figuring out how she was going to get back to the hangar without blacking out from the pain would be the last bulletin point she was processing when she caught sight of a new patch of absolute darkness in the hall observing them. Fear at the arrival of another operator delayed her warning, and the failure of communications made it too late when the new figure glided from the darkness and weaved unseen behind Lupin and Otto.

By the time they noticed it was too late to act. Luckily for them, the operator seemed uninterested in them and passed them all by to the floating corpse of Locust.

The operator appraised the corpse, seemingly confused at the lack of fatal wounds but none the less righted the corpse and continued their examination for another moment before seemingly seeing something with their equipment that could not be seen with the naked eye froze for only a moment before glancing over their shoulder at the three marines.

Placing a hand on the top of the corpse's head and remotely activating a feature, the head simply popped off from the shoulders, blood spewing from the severed head and body alike as a sealant at the base of the neck preserved the head and stopped the bleeding.

Content, The operator turned towards the exit and began to glide back.

It was almost a relief when they went to leave. But right as they passed by the still stunned marines a pistol was casually drawn from its holster with disarming grace and a single flash emanated inside the darkroom bright enough to blind them as a high-powered energy weapon began to discharge.

Ship Interior - Duece.

Locust wasn't dead, she discovered that much through her vitals. The woman's implant had had its neural link destabilized and her tamper-package had activated, blowing away part of her frontal lobe. It wasn't fatal; Her implants long since deteriorated and unreplaced left the charge less than lethal.

She knew from the readings Locust was blind, disoriented, and paralyzed but hardly dead. Regardless she began the decapitation procedure and recovery process while she pieced together what happened.

light damage to the woman's armor, floating shell casings, a wounded baby deer on the brink... Locusts preferred prey...

Duece had been too lax. All the signs of Locusts deterioration had been showing as of late. She figured she delayed the coming episode with that boy on New Bernese, Locust had seemed placated enough and had been marginally sanguine since then. She had clearly underestimated how much shorter between episodes had been.

She would have to ask Kiss to reprogram her again. She still needed locust until she could find a replacement after all; With her team dead or scattered she figured between hers and Kiss' efforts they could scrape the bottom of the barrel enough for a temporary team while new stock were scouted.

Steve would be hard to replace. And Tobias...

Locust had her toys, Duece should be allowed to have her own too. A shame to lose that one.

She sighed inwardly to herself as she prepared to leave, Floating past the little doe and placating with no signs of aggression. It was only when she was between the two actual threats that she acted. Her Nova pistol barked its signature flare and melted the face of the first man, with an empty rifle he had no chance but still managed an impressive dodge to the side avoiding a hole the size of her fist through his skull; Not that it mattered. The high-powered beam melted the front of his EVA suit to his face and where it did pass through boiled his eye into a steaming mess and cauterized half of his handsome face.

The other one, the one on her blind side reacted faster. She knew which one he was, a dropout and washout from the program. He was the bigger threat but was still just another bug to her. It only caused her a moment's delay when he didn't doge; But actually lunged at her, throwing off her aim and making her miss. She let the Nova fall from her grasp and hang by its lanyard while one of her precious kine blades found its way from its sheathe on her chest.

In her enhanced speed from her armor and the lack of gravity, he had no way to dodge when a foot and a half of vibrating durrandium punctured between his ribs and cause microtears as she cut effortlessly through his insides as the blade flailed. From the way, he hung limp shock had taken over quickly and he had blacked out from the pain.

The two had been dispatched in only a matter of seconds. All that was left was the baby doe as Duece floated menacingly towards her, one hand reaching out as she did. |

Shuttle - Sebastian, Lou, Ana.

Sebastian's world had gone dark. One minute he had been barreling towards the enemy frame in the hangar and the next...

Black...

He wasn't dead. That much was clear. He knew his suit's charge was depleted, though if from the batteries finally giving out after days of continued use, damage, or just the dam suit acting up again he wasn't sure.

The last was a pretty likely possibility. Before he had reached the hangar both the VOIDs arms had shot up again and flared the bird at his enemy before things had cut out. He also knew that the enemy wasn't a problem anymore; Thousands of kilos worth of VOID smashing into you at hundreds of miles per hour isnt anything such a small suit can shrug off.

From his powerless helmet, when someone had finally pried him away enough to see, he could see that no matter how good the armor, a mans spine was never meant to bend at a 90 degree angle like that.

Slowly, likely due to all the dead weight he could tell he was being moved until finally the dim interior lights of the shuttle came to and he could see Louis and Ana's faces looking him over.

Others were their too. The red pilot in her EVA suit Facet, An operator in Brivita armor with a severed head in the same helmet, Otto motionless with bandages and sealant over a masty wound in his gut, A twitching and thrashing marine with their EVA helmet melted horrifically to their face to the point he couldn't distinguish who it was, Carina eyes closed and motionless with blood trickling out of patched holes in her suit.

Of all the marines and reds they alone Sebastian could see survived as the shuttle jerked and jolted out of the hangar. When they finally got the release on his helmet off and his massive if overtaxed lungs could breathe again a hollow pit formed in the young SOLs gut.

So this is war?

Ship Exterior - Tobias.

"Just me, Kid." Dreamy Steves voice came through clear enough due to their proximity as he caught the operator descending towards him and settled him on the deck before he could float off into space.

"Just me."

There was no mistaking the disappointment in his tone as he said it, Staring off into space and the distant battle as it raged.

There was nothing to say. So the two simply watched as slowly the fighting tampered into nothing and the ink was silent and dark once more. Only then did steve speak again. It wasn't about the honorable if pointless death of the rag-tag fleet. It wasn't about the possibility of being marooned there until they either suffocated or were captured.

Instead, the nonsequitur steve brought about while seemingly profound made about as much sense as what usually came out of the spook's mouth and seemingly rang some inner cord in Tobias's mind and his mind registered too late what the man was about to do when the finality of the man's tone registered to him.

"When you meet her, Don't fight her, don't rebel against her. She won't hurt you, not in a way that matters at least, she'll need you now that the algorithm has changed..."

Before Tobias could stop him, The operator had already pulled the pin on plasma charged grenade and held it under his chin. The kick Steve delivered was hard enough from the brivitas servo motors to unconnect his maglocked boots from the deck and send him slowly drifting off away from the ship. As he drifted off slowly into the ink Steves final words reached him before the man disappeared in a plume of expanding hellfire.

"I desire nothing more than deep and restful sleep when sometimes I can't help but feel this is nothing more than a frightening dream. Good luck, Kid."

As Tobias was left alone in the ink, and even the distant ship began to look like nothing more than a dot on the horizon a flying black figure began to grow in size against the distant pinprick of light from the ship as a black suit of powered armor began to grow larger in his direction...