RP: Cirrus Station [Episode 10] Cumulocirrus

Tweak nodded and began moving back toward the crate. Her idea was put off to one side, mentally, but kept in the forefront of her mind because it was important. If the snow was deep enough, it was plausible that the quahhg had more young buried in a nest deep beneath her feet. Kokuten's remark about not wanting her overrun had brought that idea up...and she really, really hoped it was wrong.

Readying a pair of flashbang warheads in her hands, but not arming them, Tweak moved across the snow to the crate, keeping an eye on the beast and a tracker on the squad members.

Blake nodded once and moved towards Richard and Cassefin with George spread over his rifle. Once he reached them, Blake took one more look at the Quahhg and pushed George towards Richard before he could get any more of his armor off.

"You're bigger." He explained, "You can carry the heavy one. We're about to run somewhere."

With George safely removed from his arms, Blake switched his variable weapon for his HHG and wrapped his free arm around Cassefin's waist while kneeling down. He ignored the fact that she didn't want them using their regular weapons on the station and hoped that protecting her life would be a good enough excuse to do so. While he waited for the right moment to pull the Administrator onto his shoulder, he asked Richard a question-- all the while, writing their escape route in his head.

"Tell me, Have you ever seen a Delsaurian tribal war dance?"

"Alright," Richard said, not really minding the jab or the shouting. He started to dress himself back up and looked at Blake. "Sure." He heaved George up onto his shoulder. "Can't say I have."

"The idea is to lead with the left foot, using the power of the right leg to propel you into a long leap; with both grace and force clearly visible in your pose." Blake explained, examining his HHG from his kneeling position. His thumb cocked the hammer back on the massive pistol and Blake uttered a soft smile at the reassuring nature of the sound.

"Horses are very beautiful creatures." He added, his grasp becoming more firm around Cassefin. "Administrator Montreal. Please hold on tight."

"Well that's interesting," Richard said, trying to sound friendly. "They certainly are." With his variable weapon at the ready and his person secured, he waited for Blake to start moving out.

While Richard and Blake led the rattled Cassefin and the wounded George towards the exit, the rest of the team warily watched on as the quahhg across the snowy drifts made slow movements, strafing to the side with long, careful steps. George grunted in discomfort with each step, causing Cassefin to nervously watch him from the corner of her eye. It wasn't long before they neared the open bulkhead, the red-haired Head Administrator turning her head around to look at the others.

Then, there was an abrupt, thunderous thud. Across the room, the quahhg shook off a heavy layer of snow with a single leaping bound forward, quickly beginning to close the distance gap between itself and Squad 35. Without the white frost clinging to its fur, it looks much smaller. It was not this smaller monstrosity that made the very floor shake, however; it was a much more familiar face.

The adult quahhg had fallen down from the ceiling to almost directly over Blake, Richard, Cassefin and George, the massive amount of white fur and stealthy capabilities allowing it to cautiously approach as the others watch the smaller quahhg from afar. The beast had nearly crushed the four of them, but had landed a few feet away, sending a blanket of snow surging upward as it planted its massive limbs onto the ground as it released a piercing shrill. Before the others could react, the quahhg reared its head to the side, its mouth slightly agape revealing the several rows of menacing teeth.

Cassefin had seen the blow coming. The adult quahhg swung its head in a wide arc, its snout colliding with Richard, Blake and George in short succession while Cassefin deftly ducked underneath the swing by sheer instinct. The force of the strike cause the three men to fly several yards in opposing directions, leaving Cassefin alone in front of the quahhg, squatting with her hands over her head in a protective fashion, oblivious to what had happened.

---

The smaller quahhg had begun bounding towards the closest one it could find. At that moment, it had been Tweak, who was crossing the snowy frontier towards the crate of miniature missile warhead. In a few seconds, the beast would be on top of her, the animal baring its teeth and releasing a bellowing roar.

---

After a short moment, Cassefin slowly began to rise, looking around as she did. She caught sight of Richard, tossed over to her left while Blake and George struggled in a short bank of snow. It took her a second to realize her current position; the adult quahhg behind her had its head turned, the two sets of jet-black eyes peering down at her, a low grumbling grow vibrating outward from the giant's throat. Cassefin quickly turned to face the quahhg, the alarm evident across her face. The two stood that way for what seemed like an eternity. The enormous quahhg breathed in and out heavily, its black eyes occasionally twitching to focus on the other entities in the room, but would always return to Cassefin. The Head Administrator seemed positively dwarfed by the enormous beast, her entire body motionless for those quick, tense moments.

Cassefin's expression had changed part way through their stand off. Before, as she was turning towards the quahhg, her face revealed unrestrained fear, nervousness, annoyance, aggravation... a plethora of harrowing emotions that marred her face and pulled at her features. Now, however, the tone of her expression had changed dramatically. Cassefin stared, speechless and frozen in place, her face contorted in debilitating terror that permeated through her body. The quahhg slowly curled its lip, displaying its fangs at the Head Administrator and the small team of people behind her.

This waning moment between the two only lasted for so long. As quickly as it had come, their wordless stand-off was abruptly broken as the giant quahhg stretched its neck back once more, tilting its pointed snout downward and swinging it again, the set of menacing horns on the tip of its face at the front of its blow. Cassefin was too far gone to do much in retaliation. The administrator's shoulders tensed and her body turned slightly as the quahhg's head approached her, instinctively anticipating the strike... but it did her little good.

There came a wet, soft shunk as the large, curved horn sunk into the front of Cassefin's body, the woman only able to release a pitiful exhale of breath as her body was pierced. The force of the blow easily carried her light frame forward along with it, her limbs following loosely behind her body as she was gored. When the quahhgs head stopped, Cassefin's body flung in that direction, colliding against the wall several yards to the left of the bulkhead exit. Her collision with the wall jostled an amount of snow that had been accumulating further upwards along the wall; when her body slammed against the flat surface and came to rest on the ground, the snow fell atop her, blanketing her body with a foot or so of fresh, white powder.

Seemingly satisfied, the giant quahhg wasted no time. After it had completed its violent act, the beast began to stampede its way towards where Richard had landed, its gaping maw stretching open as it surged forward, legs thundering beneath it.

Richard felt awful about what had happened to Cassefin. What a way to go. Surely someone as important as her had some form of mental backup in case they died though. At least that was what he thought. At the same time he was relieved that the quahhg had paused for a bit before attacking again and he could confidently say he wasn't at fault for the administrator's condition. Though the air had been knocked out of him he had had sufficient time to recover enough to move. As the beast charged he did his best to stand up quickly and started to run sideways in the direction opposite Squad 35.

"No!" This time, the movie cliche was unintentional. Blake ran with full force towards the snow bank where Cassefin lie within, no doubt reduced to a pile of various organs and tank-top shreds. Blake dropped his HHG and the suits gloved hands went about pulling handfuls of snow away frantically.

"Oh, no!" He shouted, unintentionally over the comms channel while his hands worked hard on the snow, "She's gonna be dead! It's just like they told me! I'm a terrible member of the Care Corps! I can't even bodyguard one person from a stupid horrorfish!"

The color emptied from behind Kokuten's protective visor, the white glare dying down to nothing as the mother Quahhg descended onto his away group. He turned his attention onto them fully, putting his rifle into the direction of the terrible security risk. With his weapon sighted just right, he would put a few shots into the Quahhg's face, even as it knocked away the security personnel from around Cassefin. He just needed to grab its attention...

That was, until his attention was stolen by the other quahhg tearing over to them. He spun around as the beast went to over-take Tweak, caught up in the chaotic movements. With his injuries hampering him, he was unable to keep much balance, and was knocked to the ground. He groaned in pain as fresh waves of it worked up his spine, yet he was aware enough to see the Administrator impaled by the beast, just as the horn plunged into her torso.

Kokuten felt his body ice up as he watched her become tossed aside like some rag doll. Every emotion in his heart, every thought in his mind was as cold and dead as a frozen tundra. Though all of it began to fracture quickly as the cold steel of his mind began to fracture under a new emotion.

Rage.

A brilliant orange glow surfaced under his visor as he pushed himself up, hobbling once more. Though in that same movement he powered the servos in his good arm and cast his rifle out at the Mother Quahhg in a fit of anger. With all 1000 pounds of force behind the object's toss.

He spun around, addressing the nearest most concern, the younger Quahhg, which Kokuten saw fit to recognize with his Hypolathe. As he moved, the nano-sharp blade formed on the end of his medical device. The normally genial, and sharp man threw himself at the Quahhg, sinking his blade towards its head, or at least somewhere to its spine.

He wanted to damage something, break it, kill it. The stress and the pain overtook his whole body and what restraint he had left had let it all seep into his mind.

Richard was able to deftly dodge the enormous, truck-sized quahhg by the skin of his teeth, the cavernous maw of the beast snapping just shy of the man's heel. The giant creature turned its head in his direction, keeping on its prey as it swung its body around to give chase. As it did so, the massive knobbed tail raked against the snow in a wide arc. It struck Blake on the side, tossing him lightly across the snow as his focus was on the small pile of white that Cassefin had been buried under.

Even as Kokuten's discarded weapon sailed in its direction, the giant quahhg remained relatively undaunted and positively angry. The gun bounced off of its hide harmlessly, landing in the snow with a soft thud.

---

The smaller quahhg continued to shamble its way across the snow towards the team, its diversionary mission already completed as the larger of the two beasts flanked the squad. As it was about to reach Tweak, the closest of the group to it, the quahhg began making short bounds, thumping heavily against the ground with each leap. It did not notice Kokuten's sudden charge until the man was right upon it, most of its attention focused on Tweak on the others directly in front of it.

Kokuten collided with the beast's side, clinging on as he stabbed at it with his personal hypolathe. Although the weapon was a bit on the small side to do any real damage to the quahhg, the beast reacted in surprise to Kokuten's sudden assault. It paused it's leaping advance, turning in circles and wildly shook its body to dislodge the Nepleslian from its hide, screeching ear-piercing shrill cries as it did so.

Blake sat on his side for nearly two minutes while everything went to hell around him. After what seemed like an eternity to him, the young artist found the strength somewhere to get to his knees. He cursed his luck that his helmet was stuck in the throat of a dead Quaahg in a pipe in the other room as the blood crawling down his face clung tight and cold in the snowy air.

Blake ignored the sensation for the moment and crawled again towards where he had been digging, slowly. The wind was coming back to him by the time he reached the snow bank he'd been pawing at before. Still, he stayed on his knees and silently worked the snow in the midst of the combat like some sort of gulag inmate.

"Horses are such beautiful creatures." He said again, this time slowly. He dug at the snow with every word, droplets of blood coloring each handful of snow before it was tossed aside. "Is this even really snow? Or is it frost? Frost. Frost."

Scoop.

"Frost."

Toss.

"Frost."

After barely avoiding the massive quahhg Richard continued to run as fast as he could and quickly began zigzagging by taking a sharp turn to the right. He hoped the giant beast would have some trouble making quick turns given all its legs and immense size. "Please help if you can!" he shouted, sounding only somewhat agitated. While it was quite hard to do at his pace, he still tried to be careful with his footing.

Kokuten held his hypolathe tightly into the Quahhg's hide, letting the long blade stay sunk. The mean medical instrument ripped at skin of beast during the thrashing, his body beating hard against the hide.

A lot of emotion through the man's eyes and mind, though the rage in itself was blinding. He felt regret for at not least thanking Cassefin, leaving his last words to her on a bitter note. Painful bitterness trickled through his nerves like water at how he put his squad in the middle of this nest. Yet nothing short of anger was above the sadness of seeing someone he cared deeply about die so suddenly.

Though the hate was blinding. He hated himself, he hated the Quahhgs, he hated the station, he hated the position he was in, and he hated being hateful. Rage was an uncomfortable, and unfamiliar emotion to him, as he shunted such passionate thoughts aside. Now it didn't even matter, he just wanted everything he hated to die.

And then, he found himself tossed from the Quahhg, sent to the ground, collapsing in the snow. The trip to the floor was quick, if not daunting, but once he landed on his back, he felt the weight of the world truly setting over his bruised chest.

For quite a while all he could feel was bitterness, dissatisfaction, and discontent. That, piled on top of the helplessness turned him to something he hated. Now, it all came down on top of him, all of it collapsing. The degree of uselessness and inability sinking deeply onto his chest. He just wanted the quahhg to tear out of his neck and be done with it. Even so, a part of himself refused him to settle for giving up, there was still his squad.

They needed to get out of this.

Kokuten rolled up, gaining his breath from the harsh throw, breathing intensely. His visor fogged up quickly with the labored breaths, revealing his filters had been damaged by all the shock and throwing. So he ripped of the helmet, with a free finger, revealing the blood red glow of his eyes, hoping he had held the quahhg's attention enough for Tweak to do something.

Tweak was frozen.

Not literally. And she had a plan. She always had a plan, she had made half a dozen throughout the duration of this stupid mission. But those plans had all fallen apart at the seams. And now everything was losing the last bits of cohesion that remained.

What a first day, even if it wasn't technically her first day.

Kobiyashi Maru... The term was in her database for some reason, but she had no other information connected to it. The mere thought, though, seemed to bring hopelessness. A doomed mission, unless...unless she could think her way out of this. Could she?

Why was it on her, anyway?

No time to think like that. Everyone was still here, so explosives were not viable...but Tweak kept them in mind. There were two quahhgs, a species that were incredibly agile and fast for their size and very sharp tactically. an impossible combination, but she didn't have the time to mull over how they could be possible. And, lastly, her team had been cut down within seconds.

The Administrator was already dead, or would be dead within seconds at the rate a puncture like that would bleed out. Tweak could help Cassefin, help Richard, help Blake, help Kokuten, or continue toward the explosives. She could not do all at once.

She wasn't supposed to be the hero. Everyone else was.

It was cold, and Cassefin was in a shirt. Tweak could hope that the snow and ambient frigid temperature could keep her body on ice long enough to get rid of the monsters and apply first aid. Everyone else seemed alright, save for debilitating injuries.

Her mind blank except for calculations, Tweak took one of the flashbang warheads and armed it, then hurled it at the closer of the two quahhgs, then dashed toward the crate.

Blake's digging quickly found some depressing signs; his hands were quickly starting to shovel away a thin layer of slush, wet and warmed by a deep red liquid. A little more persistent work would uncover Cassefin's body more and more, bit by bit.

The wound was alarming. A deep gash, caked in crimson snow that clung to her clothes and skin, torn through the thin cloth of her undershirt and into the area beneath her breast. The extent of the damage was difficult for Blake to tell; he had little experience with wounds of this type. What was even more alarming, however, was how Cassefin's body continued to heave up and down in slow, drawling breaths. A look at the Head Administrator's face confirmed her continued life, her expression revealed her pained, unconscious form.

Cassefin Montreal was still alive, but with the worrisome wound in her chest, the exact amount of time he had was most likely precariously low.

---

As Kokuten was thrown from the small quahhgs body, it instinctively turned to face the object that was hassling it so, snarling as it bared its teeth in a menacing fashion. The larger quahhg also halted its chase for Richard, hearing the sudden cries of its smaller counterpart. This meant that it was able to catch sight of Tweak as the neko tossed the DART warhead towards the smaller quahhg. The large pitch-black eyes followed the object as it sailed, another set following Tweak as she run at break-neck pace towards the container. When the warhead neared its target, the giant predator turned its head away; it had apparently remembered the last time this had happened just minutes ago.

The explosion was deafening, a bright white flash followed by an enormous plume of thick black smog that engulfed the small quahhg in an instant. Its reaction was immediate and wild, screeching in surprise as all of its senses were assaulted by the detonation as its body quickly became obscured in the hazing smoke. Kokuten and Richard's close proximity to the detonation also subjected the both of them to all of the repercussions.

Meanwhile, the larger of the two quahhgs had turned towards Tweak and was trampling it way through the snow towards her. Much like it was previously when the two squared off, the enormous beast was much faster than Tweak, and was upon her in seconds. The quahhg raised one of its front claws and took a swipe at Tweak's back, the sharp talons on each of the three toes bared for bite.

Luckily for Richard, he was not facing the warhead when it went off because it landed behind the quahhg he was running away from. He was still momentarily shocked by the sound of the explosion, but his cybernetic auditory system automatically lessened the noise he heard and though it was overloaded, leaving him deafened like a normal person would be, it was recovering very quickly. What really got him was the force of the sound passing through the rest of his body. It made him feel extremely sick and caused hm to tense up and nearly fall over, but he forced himself to continue running out of the spreading smoke.

The DART warhead was easily bypassed by Tweak, now that her body knew what to expect and how to negate it. The shockwave even gave her a little nudge toward the crates. Meanwhile, the blades she still had under her skin were useless as they were, apparently, so Tweak let her body repurpose the metal to form smaller objects that remained under her skin, around her forearms and just behind the ports on her hips, waiting until they were needed.

MoonMan said:

Meanwhile, the larger of the two quahhgs had turned towards Tweak and was trampling it way through the snow towards her. Much like it was previously when the two squared off, the enormous beast was much faster than Tweak, and was upon her in seconds. The quahhg raised one of its front claws and took a swipe at Tweak's back, the sharp talons on each of the three toes bared for bite.

Click to expand...

Her mind still blank except for raw instinct and calculations, Tweak felt the creature's footfalls and stopped in place, then stepped to the side as the claws sliced the air next to her and buried themselves in the snow as she hit the quick-release on her backpack. Using the inertia from the CSS suit's backpack slinging down her right arm, Tweak hurled it off into an untouched corner of the bay to avoid catching the fusion reactor with a claw (like almost happened) or in an explosion later on. Still spinning, she doubled-back toward the quahhg, which was still between her and the rest of the squad. Two darts, ten-centimeter-long throwing blades with serrated edges and barbs at the tips that would catch on whatever they punctured, cut slits in her suit near back of her hips to slide into her waiting hands. Both blades quickly were on their way, each toward one of the quahhg's large eyes in a single motion. Behind the blades, she threw another DART, the second of the three she had on her. If the blades missed the eyes they were aimed for -- Tweak only hoped to disable one of the many pairs it had -- then the quahhg would take the full brunt of a flashbang detonation on its face. If the blades hit, then it would still take the full brunt of a flashbang detonation on its face, hopefully. Meanwhile, the neko calculated that she would be able to miss most of the blast by putting the creature between herself and the explosive, clearing underbelly before anything fell.

Another sharp knife of pain jabbed up his spine, giving the sensation of splitting skin as Kokuten was nearly put to the ground. Pain wracked his body, and stumbled off as he was disoriented by the sudden shock. His vision was barely affected, the vision systems in his eyes just adjusting brightness to the amount of light. Still, he was overcome with a dreadful situatio as he stumbled over the snow to his rifle, lodged upright like a grave-marker. He couldn't hear anything, and couldn't feel anything beyond the numbing suffering of his wounds.

His feet plodded along the snow, holstering his hypolathe to free up the one hand he had left.

He looked over at Richard, who was still reeling from the blast. As odd as he was, he was tough to still be standing.

Then he saw Blake. The man had an expression as if he had seen something like a ghost. He could see what looked like a body being dug from the snow, one that wasn't quite dead.

Finally, he looked back at Tweak, and the younger Quahhg by his peripheral. She was locked in combat with the mother Quahhg, but she was managing.

Perhaps she was right. thought Kokuten as he gripped his hypolathe again. His tactical mind was forming another plan, and as he did so, the medical device went flying towards Blake.

"Morris! Use this to numb their pain and stop the bleeding!" yelled Kokuten, as he picked up the rifle, and turned back at the Quahhgs. "Richard, we're changing up plans." The Captain edged himself closer to the man, "We're going to get out of the Freespacer's way, and move the wounded out of here. I want supporting fire on both of those things as we go!"

The militant-doctor aimed his rifle at the larger quahhg as it was assailed by military grade rounds, and unleashed a volley of fire. All the while, he limped towards Blake.

"Have we found George?" asked Kokuten to Richard, still spitting rounds from his rifle.

"Alright," Richard responded. Having cleared the smoke, he quickly scanned the room trying to recall where he had been thrown knowing George would be nearby if he were still unconscious. Spotting the short man lying where he had expected him to be, he ran towards him and once again slung him over his back, this time in a much rougher fashion. "I've got him," he answered the squad leader. With George secured, he joined him in firing on the quahhgs, aiming first at the smaller one.

Catch it, you idiot.

Blake fumbled with the instrument for a moment before getting it pointed at Cassefin, the sweat forming frost on his brow.

'I was trained to use one of these if I had to...' Blake thought. He searched hastily for the Hypospray function and flicked the appropriate switch on the side of the device with a small amount of clumsiness.

"Please don't die! Please don't die! It's just a stupid Horrorfish, you'll be okay! Please be okay?" Blake was also trained to be confident and re-assuring to wounded wards. He was never very good at that.

The young artist flinched and squeezed the trigger of the medical device pointed directly at Cassefin's wound. 'C'mon, nanomachines!'