RP: Cirrus Station [Episode 10] Cumulocirrus

Kumiko knew better to try and get up and out of the way before the quahhg landed on her. Maybe if she was a neko, instead of just a civilian body it would've been doable, but as it was, there wasn't a point in even trying. So, instead of trying to get up, she just rolled, tucking her gun in close to her body as she went. "We really need more people than this! Fighting one on one just doesn't work with these things!"

Blake sat at the fork for some time, looking between the two paths with a wandering eye. His aesthetic sense guided him to the left, staring on the right foot in the traditional acceptance of the invitation to an ancient Delsaurian war-dance. His logical sense urged him right, although for all the wrong reasons: Right was the starting foot for the Kohanian tribal dance, and Blake logically knew it as superior to the Delsaurian one.

Still, since it was a combat situation, he concluded, the war dance was the better choice. Blake wandered to the left and raised his gun again, this time with his eyes constantly checking the floor for footprints, or Quahhg slime, or bits of Lenny, or even a stray piece of variable weapon.

The quahhg landed near Kumiko and Richard with a resounding thud against the snow on the tiled floor. It laid still, dazed and reeling from its fall, until the two of them began firing at it with their weapons, the blue plasma burning through the skin and muscle with relative ease. The beast quickly rose with a shrill screech, the squad captain still in its claws, hanging limp and unconscious, and quickly turned its body around in a circle, flailing the small hard lump at the end of its long tail into their direction. The short distance would make it difficult to avoid; being the unlucky first in the path of the tail, Kumiko was struck on the side of her calf and was knocked down by the force, sending her sprawling back a few feet.

The juvenile snow quahhg saw this, taking the opportunity to halt its spin and begin shambling towards the downed woman, its head lowered and jaws open and outstretched like a lethal ice-cream scoop, drawing its way through the snow towards Kumiko.

---

"I'm sorry captain!" Mimi was the one to reply this time as Kokuten struggled with his immediate problem. Her voice was rushed and anxious, no doubt stricken from worry for not being able to help with more than simply relaying messages. "Some of Squad 75 has arrived but appear to be engaged with their own enemy, Captain Abeck is on his way as well with his team! They should be there shortly, you just need to hang on!"

Exposed to the hail of gunfire from Kokuten, the quahhg leaped towards him again. Kokuten had chosen to remain where he was, meaning he was at the mercy of the beasts charge regardless of whether his plasma fire was effective or not. Such close proximity meant an increased chance of hitting his target, and hit his target he did; the volley of plasma seared through the quahhgs skin on several areas on the front of its body, two of which struck near the left side of its face, damage the sunken area of the eyes as well. Normally the quahhg would have released a sound of pain from its newly-acquired wounds, but it seemed too enthralled with its prey, throwing its inhibitions to the wind in favor of quickly dealing with its enemy. The quahhg landed on top of Kokuten, pushing him down easily with its weight and immediately snapped its bloodied jaws over Kokuten's free arm, midway between the elbow and shoulder.

The crushing weight of its jaws was enough to stress the metal and construction, but not enough to bite cleanly through it.

---

As Tweak began making her way to the crate, George was still submerged in his thrilling chase with the enormous adult quahhg, doing his best to keep one step ahead. Tweak's physical abilities were much greater than his own, however; George had to constantly contend with sinking too far into the snow, making his normal run slow to a trudge as he lifted his knees higher than normal to scale the embankments of powdery white. Even with Tweak's advantages, she was caught up to by the quahhg; George had little chance of escape, and a quick look behind him proved his fears rang true.

The quahhg had closed in enough to reach George, its large black eyes boring into his back with lethal intent. Mid-run, the beast reared downward a tad and brought itself back up, leaping towards George with its maw and talons bared. George saw this, luckily, his head turned back and his eyes wide, the breath of his physical exertion blowing hot mist from his mouth. With his eyes behind him, however, George couldn't see the slightly risen mound of snow he was approaching. As such, he struck it and stumbled forward, falling flat on his stomach just as the quahhg sailed overhead, its talons missing him by fractions of an inch.

George and the giant quahhg were matched in confusion, but George had the advantage of being behind the quahhg as it swung its head around, looking to see if perhaps it had squashed on top of the Nepleslian. The man took advantage of this moment of reprieve, getting up one more and running in the opposite direction back towards Tweak.

"Crates," Kess replied to Tweak through the radio, a word of confirmation followed by a short moment as Kess gathered what information she could from the Cirrus' computer banks and logistic lists. We have no camera access in there, so I can't tell which crate you are looking at. It's also possible the quahhgs could have moved crates on their own prior to your arrival. Unless you're able to give me a crate number, I can't help you with specifics. Crate in that area contain seem to contain mostly spare parts for small arms, empty fission-fusion reactor assemblies, durandium plates... any number of things."

The crate that George was attempting to make use of was about stomach-high off the ground, the lower half of it still submerged in snow. The top face of the metal crate wasn't a solid piece like the sides, but rather a retractable, segmented panel that opened through remote means, a small groove in the bottom of one end present in case of possible malfunction of the opening mechanisms. There was also a long white adhesive sticker stuck to one end of the crate's lid, a long series of numbers and a bar code present on the face. 00121456.

---

Blake's strange dance did not seem to do much at first. There were little signs in either direction that would give Blake a clue as to where the quahhg and Lenny had gone. For a while, there was nothing other than a soft wind blowing at his armored back.

After a moment, however, Blake would hear a faint wheezing noise approaching his position from the left. What light his suit's ambient glow gave allowed him to see that it was one of the lift workers from before, quickly running towards him. Blake wouldn't have much time to speak to the man, however; the brown-suited Cirrus Station employee simply ran straight past him, giving him a harried glance and shouting "Run!"

Blake would see, after another short moment, what exactly the man was attempting to warn him of. The right side of the tunnel began to shake slightly, a low growl and sound of heavy shuffling through crushed snow crunching its way to Blake's ears. Further down the right side tunnel, Blake would see the silhouette of the quahhg he had been chasing... however, it would appear that their positions had been switched. The beast was scuttling towards Blake quickly, hot breath pouring from its snout as it let loose a blood-curdling screech.

"Arghah!" yelled Kokuten as the beast knocked him to his back shocking the air out of his lungs. His grip on his rifle came loose as his wrist bounced against the snow, causing the weapon to flip out of his reach. Fear gripped deeply under his skin for just that moment, like needles digging for veins. The beast had hit him harder than he could've anticipated, as hard as it felt when taking a direct hit in powered armor. For the first few seconds he spent himself trying to reach for his rifle in a panic, all the while screaming in pain. His arm's synthetic nerves reported extreme pain when excess pressure, shock, or temperature was applied to it.

The Captain could feel his arm becoming misshapen, and in his moment of panic he turned back, digging his powerful fingers into the eyes of the beast. He growled and squirmed, flailing his body against the predator, before it came to him that his fore-arm on the shock arm was barely free. The charge in it was still built, and it still sparked the ambient humidity playing against it.

"Ragh! Agh!" snarled Kokuten as his right hand dug into the eye with roaring effort as he bent his other arm in at the elbow to place his hand on the animal's neck.

Please let these suits be sealed.

As soon as the circuit made contact, it sizzled, and cracked releasing its charge into the beast's body.

Richard had yet another thing to be thankful for having been spared the creature's powerful strike at Kumiko's expense. At the same time he wished he'd taken the hit in her place since he was the sturdier of the two. Seeing how perilous his squad mate's predicament was, he decided to do his best to take the quahhg's attention off her. He fixed his eyes on its swaying tail and quickly ran towards it, trying to circumnavigate it while being mindful of his footing on the treacherous floor of snow and ice. Upon getting right up next to the animal he'd fire a burst into its backside. Should he too get batted away before he could he'd just shoot from wherever he landed.

Serra looked around and, with her personal beast apparently slain, took off at a dead run to the nearest other squad member who was still dealing with theirs.

"This is Evangelle, whom ever is closest, I'm coming to assist." She said into the shared feed as she ran.

"As long as it doesn't explode when I open it," muttered Tweak. "Zulu-zulu, one-two-one, four-five-six," she added reporting the number to Kess.

A thud and a roar brought her attention back to George's problem. The man had just received a lucky break, it seemed. Tweak turned her attention back to the crate, she needed it open NOW. Spotting the loose panel, she shoved her fingertips into it and yanked.

As the shock transmitted from Kokuten's free arm to the quahhg's neck, the effects were less than lethal. Perhaps it was due to the size of the beast, or the unique physiology making it more insulated, but whatever the reason was, the sudden jolt caused the quahhg to jerk as a reaction. The creature tore its head to the side with a short shrill cry, taking Kokuten's clamped arm with it, ripping it from mid-shoulder and down in one unceremonious twist.

The quahhg, surprised by the charge of electricity, stumbled back a few steps. The wounds on the beast were more readily apparent at this distance; it was bleeding from several areas, including the left side of its face. The combination of these wounds as well as the sudden jolt from Kokuten's arm had taken its toll, the beast shambling back a few steps shakily, screeching in gasping short screeches. It backed into one of the pipes and, upon contact, turned and attempted to scale the large metal cylinder, but wasn't able to fully reach the top and keep hold. The beast tumbled back down and slumped against the pipe, remaining motionless in the snow.

---

Tweak was able to force the sliding panel on the crate open with relative ease, a faint snapping sound coming from the end of the panel as she forced the latching mechanism. The contents of the crate were not immediately apparent to her; there were several stacked rows of racks composed of a soft, cushioned material. Inside of these racks of padding were many small white objects that looked like short cylinders, roughly the size of small eggs. The only marks or identifications on any of them were series of numbers and barcodes along the side that Tweak wouldn't be able to put meaning to, although from first glance they were definitely mechanical in some respect; the tops of each cylinder separated from the body of the object by a small crease, indication some sort of content inside each item.

"Records show that the crate number you gave me contains an assorted number of miniature missile warheads," Kess returned an answer to Tweak as the neko surveyed the contents of the crate. "They are unmarked, but they are still live and can be armed by twisting the cap and applying force to the head. I can't say for sure what kind of warheads you are looking at, Tweak. Be careful."

Blake paused for only long enough to fire his weapon at the oncoming beast before turning tail and dashing into the opposite tunnel, rather than the one leading out. He thought that if he could lead the creature towards him and away from the escaping technician, that'd be at least one life saved.

Unless of course, he died. Then they'd be breaking even.

Explosives! Good!

Munitions!...
...
...potentially very, very, very bad.

"Tell me these have no chance of being antimatter, Kess. Please tell me they are not antimatter," said Tweak, feeling something like a sweatdrop sliding down the side of her head. Her hand bumped the side of her helmet in a futile gesture to remove perspiration that wasn't actually there. That was too much high-explosive for her to feel comfortable being so close.

Her panic subsided a little, though, as her Tactical Operating System brought up a relevent query. Kess had said she couldn't tell her what she was dealing with...which, unless these warheads were classified (which wouldn't have allowed Kess to know what they were or how they were operated), then that implied that there were more than one type of miniwarhead. Which meant that there were known types. And each type, if they were widely-used enough to be known and unclassified, would have a theoretical yield so commanders and soldiers would know what the kill radius was for effective deployment. There were probably huge holes in that train of logic, she knew, but she chose to ignore them for sake of time. George only had so much of it left...

"What types of these are there, what are their explosive yields, and if we used just one of the most dangerous type, would it kill just the critter and not us if I stuffed it down the monster's gullet?!" Tweak glanced back up to see how George was faring. "The thing's after George, he isn't going to last long!"

Kokuten breathed deeply, a choking gasp for peaceful air.

There was a ghostly sensation of teeth gnashing at his crushed arm. The extent of the damage was reminisced upon every 2.5 seconds when a simulated burst of aching pain was sent to his brain. These weren't like real nerve responses, he didn't feel what someone felt when their arm was actually pressed under the submitting might of a beast's jaw. This pain felt more like the sensation one felt when they were punched extremely hard. Only this felt like Kokuten was getting punched repeatedly, by a custodian war droid.

Warm blood oozed from under his skin grafts, he could feel it spreading down the side of his body, tightly sealed under the armor by the suit's inner layer. At first, it was a warm, alien sensation, before the temperatures fed on the liquid's conductivity, turning it into a cold and very unwanted sensation. Each inch his chilled blood moved down his body, the more he realized he was actually hurting all over. Every icy pinprick down his side rose a new nerve, which just seemed to even out the pain in his body.

Though, after laying on the ground, and sharing it with the supposedly dead quahhg, Kokuten decided to roll over and stand. He stumbled for a moment, his leg shooting up more stinging knives in his body. Yet being back on all fours gave him the chance to scoop up his rifle, before scanning his surroundings with his infrared vision.

He saw Blake retreat into one of the pipes trying to get away, he thought he saw someone else, but dismissed it as he turned his attention elsewhere. Serra was on the move again, having dispatched her opponent hastily and searching for more blood. He couldn't help, but feel the Nepleslian culture was rubbing off on her. Then there was Tweak and George, handling the largest Quahhg in the next room from what he had gathered from their previous communications.

Everyone else was doing rather well, save for himself, he thought. At least, it appeared that way. He couldn't find the rest of his squad, or at least he couldn't see them. Nonetheless he resolved to stand, despite the discomfort and pain, and forced his legs to move in a run to the pipe he had seen the worker dive in, giving orders as he moved.

"Serra, assist Morris, kill that last Quahhg with him and secure this immediate area." he breathed, the struggle in his words evident. "The workers and Cassefin must be here, and thus we need to hold off what threats we can until support arrives. I'm going to..." He nearly tripped again, his ankle flaring up. "... I'm going to try and secure the remaining three targets."

"Hey!" called out the Captain to the escaping worker he had seen earlier, his externals crackling, "Buddy! Where are you? I need you to help me find the other man, and the Head Administrator!"

Kumiko grunted as she hit the ground hard, the breath knocked out of her for a few moments. As she labored to catch her breath again, she saw the quahhg charging through her slightly watery eyes, and scrabbled in the snow, trying to catch her breath, get up, and get moving. Being eaten definitely wasn't on her to-do list for the day (or the century, for that matter), but it wasn't looking like she had much of a choice in the matter. So she ended up scrabbling backwards in the snow while she grasped to grab her weapon again, hopefully to stop the quahhg from getting it's latest snack.

Unfortunately for Blake, the quahhg was much more adept at traversing through the tunnel than he was. Before long, the beast was snapping at the man's heels, the heavy set of jaws opening up to scoop up the poor fellow into the gnashing maw... only to come to a sudden jerking halt just before it could sink its teeth into Blake's back. The beast stood still for a moment, the dark eyes glimmering in the faint light, before abruptly attempting to lunge forward at Blake once more, only to find that it could not go any further. The quahhg raised its head and turned its neck around to glance behind its bulky body.

There was a familiar dull green glow coming from the base of the creatures tail. Lenny, his CSS suit's ambient lights shining softly, was gripping the quahhg by its tail and holding it fast, his large feet digging into the snow beneath him. The creature attempted to shake him off with a few whipping movements of its tail, but Lenny would not be moved, the blank facemask of his CSS suit helmet reflecting his solidarity.

---

"The logs just state that they are sorted by rack. There's a nomenclature for warhead types, but you'll have to give me the the serial number and barcode to get a proper identification, Tweak," Kess replied with what information she could gather, speaking quickly through the helmet's radio. "DART warheads are non-lethal, but ARROW and BOLT detonations could be lethal at several yards depending on detonation."

From Tweak's perspective, there were indeed three trays of miniature missile warheads, one stacked on top of the other. Relaying the information on a single warhead from each rack was doable, but would take time, especially so if she relayed the information from each tray. There were many options, and it started with either Tray 1, 2, or 3.

While Tweak debated the possibilities of the minimissile warheads' use, George was running short on his borrowed time. The man continued to have difficulty navigating through the powdery snow, his fleeing weighted by his inability to not sink a foot or so into the ground with every step. The large quahhg, on the other hand, its three-toed feet webbing outward to provide a larger contact surface area, pursued with ease.

George turned around again in panic as the beast neared once more. He thought about perhaps doing another feint, this time on purpose. Abruptly, George dove off to the side just as the quahhg would have run straight over him, in an attempt to get out of the creatures path of destruction. The snow quahhg was ready for this, however, the black eyes following the man as its front claw reached out and snatched him up in a single swipe before he could even touch the ground.

The Nepleslia, letting out a grunt of surprise at his sudden restriction, struggled fruitlessly as he was slowly lifted up towards the beasts' head, its eyes and head swiveling to look at him at his closer angle. George, staring back into the face of his captor, slowly stopped struggling when he realized the effort would be wasted. His eyes widened in terror and he remained speechless, only watching as the huge creature barred its teeth, soft hisses of warm breath pushing from between its teeth. George managed to look over in Tweak's direction, the color flushing from his face, to see what she was trying to do before turning back to the predator in front of him.

Blake didn't take long to get a grip on the situation and made quick with his rifle towards the Qhaug. He pointed the gun directly at the neck of the creature, it's struggles seemingly perfect opportunity for one of those sappy one-liners you always saw in Nepleslian action movies, like 'Eat plasma.' or 'Go back to where you came from, slick.'

Blake didn't really have a very good grasp on one liners.

"I am going to create a beautiful fractal mural on the walls of this enclosure with your entrails, followed by a tasteful portrait of your mother. Um... Also, eat plasma, slick."

Then, the young artist let the plasma fly, squeezing the trigger to fire everything he had at the wicked ice-beast.

The quahhg approached Kumiko, its mouth and teeth swishing side to sound with each awkward bounding step. Before it could gobble up the poor young Yamataian, however, Richards burst of fire from his weapon caught the beast along the back several times. This caused to quahhg to rear up in surprise and pain, its front four limbs flailing wildly in front of it with the Squad 74 captain still in its clutches, hanging limp from unconsciousness.

---

Kokuten said:

"Hey!" called out the Captain to the escaping worker he had seen earlier, his externals crackling, "Buddy! Where are you? I need you to help me find the other man, and the Head Administrator!"

Click to expand...

The man Kokuten was referring to had been watching from beyond the pipe, only poking his head out further when he was certain that he was, to some extent, out of harms way. He stood up and approached Kokuten, holding his limp arm while keeping his eyes on the quahhg, still laying motionless slumped against the pipe opposite of him. "The other guy got taken into that tunnel over there," the brown-suited worker said, motioning over to the direction where Lenny and Blake had been taken before looking back at the defeated snow quahhg with a piteous look. "And... well, you know where Pete is."

"The big thing left the three of us here when it passed through, dropped us of as snacks for these smaller ones," the liftworker went on, shivering slightly from the biting cold. "It kept the Head Administrator though, took her over yonder through that bulkhead," the man motioned to what was to be Squad 35's destination, before they had been ambushed. Tweak and George were already there, if the information on their sudden fall was accurate. The fellow sounded fairly downtrodden about the whole ordeal, which was understandable; he had been in the clutches of the largest quahhg already, and had little hope for a favorable outcome based on what he had seen and experienced.

Richard quickly began to swiftly shuffle backwards in response to the quahhg's rising and thrashing. As he did so he raised his weapon to his shoulder and started firing in a straight, vertical line, beginning at the middle of its back. The farther away he moved from the the beast the higher up he shot. Upon reaching its head he would focus on it until it was no longer exposed.

There were no more options. There was no more time. Tweak grabbed one of the warheads and, without arming it, hurled it at the adult quahhg's head as hard as she could while it stared hungrily at George. "George, radio helmet is here! Talk to Kess, find non-lethals warheads!" she yelled, blasting the audio out her external speakers to get the creature's attention.

Her mind buzzed with worries. Her TacOpSys buzzed with calculations and replaying part of what she was told earlier to reassure her that this was going to work out.

But when has anything worked out?

It always does, Tweak. That's why we're still all here.

Tweak removed her helmet and dropped it next to the crate. She gripped another warhead in her hand, waiting to see what the quahhg did, whether her throw caught its attention more than George's snowball had earlier. She really didn't want to throw another and risk accidental detonation, even if unarmed warheads were supposed to be inert.

Please drop him, please drop him, please drop him...

Tweak's throw sent the small unarmed explosive device sailing through the misty air, her well-seasoned arm able to plant it square on the side of the giant quahhg's head. The soft thuck against the furred skin caused George's eyes to follow the small warhead as it fell to the ground, not sure what to expect. The quahhg, on the other hand, turned its head slightly towards Tweak, the thrown object doing its job of gathering its attention back to her.

It did not drop George, however. At least not immediately; the enormous beast stared at Tweak for a mere handful of seconds, the black spheres behind its weathered skin and stark white hair blankly watching her movements. After those seconds passed, however, the quahhg turned its head back to George. It opened its mouth, exposing several rows of huge, menacing teeth. The Nepleslian's eyes widened once more, what few inches of his body he could still move flinching away fruitlessly as the quahhgs maw bore down on him.

In one quick and precise movement, the quahhg sank the first few front teeth into George's shoulder, eliciting a shocked shout from the man as the fangs easily pierced through the security suit, crushing flesh and bone alike. George's pained yell echoed out even after the quahhg withdrew its fangs from the man's mangled shoulder and unceremoniously dropped him onto the ground. George hit the snow, blood oozing from the wounds on his shoulder and upper arm seeping into the snow, producing the faintest of wispy vapors as he lay still. The giant creature, seemingly satisfied with this, turned its attention back to Tweak and roared, beginning to quickly advance back upon Tweak.

Tweak quickly grabbed two more warheads, one warhead from each of the other trays, altering her plan slightly and running to the end of the room furthest from George. There were other lumps in the snow along the way, she noted, but didn't examine them.

Mental calculations ran on how much time and space her running gave her...insert blast radii...insert quahhg speeds...she armed and tossed one warhead directly up in the air, trying to make it out of the blast radius before it hit the ground or the beast behind her. She had a one in three chance it was going to be non-lethal and a two-thirds chance it was going to blow things up. For this one, she hoped for non-lethal. That would nearly guarantee her next two.

Kokuten tried to lift his left hand to clap the man on the shoulder and let him know it was going to be alright, but then as he tried to reach, the limb fell, lifeless. The Captain looked at his non-functioning arm, and found deep holes and lacerations through the metal of armor, the arm itself in a sickening shape. That pain which had haggard only seconds before, was replaced by the ghostly sensation of not having an arm at all.

Yet it twitched every now and then, the sound of sparks and light glows popping within the teeth-marked holes. Ever spark seemed to make Kokuten twitch in pain.

"Listen." said Kokuten, opening his facial visor to reveal a red-face, and white, glowing eyes. "We're the first response group. Rescue is impossible while we're dealing with these things, so I need you to find your buddy and hole up."

What seemed to grabbed his attention most at the moment was the limp arm, something needed to be done about it. He stabbed his rifle into the snow, and pulled out his Hypolathe. He pointed it at the man's arm, and sprayed some NCS Nanobots over the tissue to mend it. The Head Administrator throbbed uncomfortably in the back of his mind as he worked.

"Cassefin is still out there, and I'm starting to become useless in a fight. So, here's what we're doing."

He then stuck it under his arm, twisting the knob to change its setting. Then jabbed the man again, injecting him with a mild, slow acting stimulant, whether he liked or not. Finally, he tilted the rifle, still stabbed into the snow, in the wounded fellow's direction.

"Take this rifle, and give it to your buddy when you find him. The two of you need to wait in those pipes until we can get you out of here. The canister still has some charge in it, so it'll ward some of them off if they turn on you. Don't let them get close, and don't waste your shots." said the Captain, putting his hypolathe under his arm, and switching it to another setting. When he tugged it back out, the medical device was growing a foot-long blade out of its port. With a press of the button on the side of his helmet, the visor closed again. "Good luck."

With that, he turned and ran to the other room, where the large Quahhg had supposedly taken Cassefin. Every step accentuated the pain his leg, causing him to limp over the snow. Yet he pushed it all back, forcing his sprint. He needed to find her.