RP: Cirrus Station [Episode 10] Cumulocirrus

The quahhg that was stalking Richard and Kumiko had apparently had enough. Several serious burns littered the creature's back, the beast coming down with a hefty stomp back onto its clawed feet as the Squad 74 captain fell out of its grasp. The monstrous animal released a bellowing screech, flipping around wildly away from Kumiko and Richard and dove into the nearby snow bank. Adept at traversing through its territory, the quahhg sifted through the top layer of the snow as though it were water and disappeared from sight, returning the two CSS members to an uneasy silence.

---

The miniature warhead sailed gracefully up into the air as Tweak fled the blast zone, the giant quahhg apparently oblivious to the neko's actions and intent as it continued to shamble its way over to her, stumbling once for but a split second on an unexpected pothole in the snowy path. Tweak's calculations were good, but the random elements of her planning ended up causing the warhead to fall before the quahhg had reached its destination. The small white object hit the soft snow with a noiseless pomf.

In an instant, a resoundingly loud BANG pierced the air through the room, causing even Tweak's ears some mild pain through her helmet. There was a brilliant flash of light as well, accompanied by a thick cloud of black smoke roiling out from the point of impact directly in front of the quahhg. Tweak's random warhead turned out to be a DART round.

The giant animal, nearly all of its senses instantly turned upside down by the sounds, smells and flash, skidded to a halt with a screeching roar of surprise. It reared its front two legs up in anticipation for an surprise attack that never came, snarling as it blinked its eyelids constant in an attempt to remove the temporary blindness the flash had caused. Despite being stunned by the surprising attack on its senses, the quahhg was quick to recover by simply turning around and, in one short hop, diving beneath the snow. A large, quick-moving lump beneath the tundra trailed its way in the opposite direction, eventually sinking away and becoming indiscernible from the rest of the billowing white.

Tweak wasn't in much better shape. Despite being away from the blast radius, the loud bang and flash of light played harshly on her senses. The DART had also released a large mass of disruptive particles in the billowing smoke screen it had created, causing Tweak's radio to become unresponsive and filling the recesses with an ear-splitting static.

---

The man that Kokuten had saved took the rifle from the captain's hand after a short few seconds of thought. "Shit, you don't have to tell me twice. I'm staying right here until more of you guys show up," he said, shivering once more against the cold as he glanced over towards the sunken hole that Lenny and Blake were fighting their own battle in. The 3rd captive, having escaped with the help of the duo in the tunnel, was scrambling up the snowy hill. The two waved towards one another, the man with Kokuten's rifle quick to fill his counterpart in on the current situation.

---

As Blake fired the plasma at such close range, his quip was met with another short screech from the quahhg as the plasma burned away at the front of the beasts body. However, the plasma wasn't the only thing it was intending to eat, however; through the mixture of heat and pain, the quahhg was able to open its mouth. Its long, knobbed tongue shot out of its mouth with great velocity, the ichor-covered end spatting against Blake's upper body with a splatch. The slime and warm, soft tissue pressed against his helmet, obscuring his vision as the force of the hit threw him slightly off-balance.

Lenny, unable to actually tell what was happening in the front, continued to hold the quahhg in place.

"Ugh, Just..."

Unbalanced or not, even drifting beyond his wits, Blake continued to blast away at the quahhg and its foul tongue-ejecting-nast. Even with his face contorting inside his helmet, the rifle was held as firmly as possible on the front of the snowy monster.

"...Fucking..."

The only reason Blake was so determined to kill it at this point was to validate his one-liner. He had somehow forgotten that his failure would result in his death and probably Lenny's as well.

"...Burn!"

MoonMan said:

In an instant, a resoundingly loud BANG pierced the air through the room, [and would have caused] Tweak's ears some mild pain through her helmet [if she was wearing it]. There was a brilliant flash of light as well, accompanied by a thick cloud of black smoke roiling out from the point of impact directly in front of the quahhg.

[...]

Despite being away from the blast radius, the loud bang and flash of light played harshly on her senses. The DART had also released a large mass of disruptive particles in the billowing smoke screen it had created, causing Tweak's radio to become unresponsive and filling the recesses with an ear-splitting static.

Click to expand...

Tweak stumbled, partially from the already precarious purchase on the snow, and partly from the unexpected bang; she had been expecting a deeper "boom" sort of explosion. Even though the blast played havoc with her balance, almost knocking her to the ground, her auditory input shut down almost instantly, automatic filters keeping most of the sensory overload from harming her and enabling near-instant recovery. Of course, her omnipresent knit cap did nearly nothing to dampen the sound. The flash was a little more difficult, but her vision cleared after a few moments since she wasn't looking at the power-armor-scale flashbang when it went off. Having dropped her helmet back at the crates, the 'spacer neko was spared the radio static.

She continued running, but happened to glance back to find the lump that was the quahhg slithering away under the snow. Quickly adding a thermal overlay to her vision, Tweak tried to track the creature as it ran away. Her plan was quickly unraveling...again.

While searching, she quickly headed back toward the crates. The quahhg had wounded George. That was a military tactic as well as a wildlife one: It had disabled him to keep him from running until it was able to come back for him. Since Tweak had proven to be a more disorienting foe, it was highly likely that it was heading back to recover its prey and escape.

As the juvenile quahhg made its frantic escape, Richard tried to track it and fired until it was out of sight. Then, after taking a quick look around, he cautiously bent down, picked up his captain with his free arm and flung him over his shoulder. "Would you please grab his rifle?" he asked his partner. Next he radioed the other squad. "I apologize for the delay, squad 74 is here to help. We ran into some trouble of our own and our captain is incapacitated at the moment." Having spotted Kokuten and the injured man he had helped, he ran over to the pipe where they had been a moment ago and looked inside. Seeing the three men holed up inside, he called out to them and handed them his superior. With him taken care of, he ran after Squad 35's leader, still remaining vigilant lest they encounter another ambush.

Serra ran past the tunnel Blake had retreated into and noticed Lenny holding the Quahhg's tail. Figuring the two were all right, she kept going. "Captain, Morris and Lenny are fending one off as I speak, I doubt they need any further assistance." She said, before slowing to a stop to look around again, she was further into the beasts territory and needed to retake stock of her position and who she could help.

"Captain, Morris and Lenny are fending one off as I speak, I doubt they need any further assistance." She said, before slowing to a stop to look around again, she was further into the beasts territory and needed to retake stock of her position and who she could help.

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"I don't care if they've got it hog-tied and are prepping to execute it! Every threat in that immediate area needs to be neutralized! The faster, the better!" barked back Kokuten as he limped into the other area, oblivious to the other man, before he turned to look back at the other squad members. This was all of Squad 74? What in the world happened to the rest of them? The Captain of Squad 35 turned into the next room, radioing over the frequency to Richard.

"Where's the rest of your squad, soldier?" asked Kokuten to 74 squad member in a way that sounded more like an order.

The pain in his leg throbbed a little less when he slowed down, but the situation wouldn't warrant slowing down. So he tried to find a happy medium in his pace. At least it wasn't hard for Richard to keep up.

Richard replied to Kokuten sounding at a loss for words. "I hate to say it sir, but frankly I don't know what's going on with everyone else. I guess they're just taking their sweet time getting here. I wish my squad was as efficient as yours. My partner has a spare rifle to replace the one you gave those men a moment ago." By the time he had finished speaking he had moved slightly ahead of the senior soldier, not wanting to risk letting him take the brunt of whatever came their way, given his sorry state.

Blake continued to blindly fire away at the quahhg, despite his vision being obscured by the beasts projectile tongue. His shots strayed far and wide, an occasional hit causing the quahhg to shake side to side even more violently. Lenny was, luckily, easily able to keep the beast in place, using the creatures body to block the bright blue bolts of heat that he noticed flying haphazardly in various directions. This went one for a short while before the quahhg's movements began to grow slower and more sluggish, until eventually it stopped moving all at once. The tongue glued to Blake's front, however, remained quite stuck.

---

Tweak's various cycles of vision wouldn't do her much good. The snow quahhg, a natural predator to its environment, was a cold-blooded creature. The thermal overlay revealed little more than enormous patches of cool area, the quahhg itself long-gone from her sight range as she neared the crate. There were a couple of blatant hot-spots, however.

George was still there on the ground. He had rolled onto his back, soft peals of breath emanating from his mouth as he faced up towards the ceiling, eyes closed tightly. Judging from the pace of the fog roiling from between his teeth, he was still conscious and no doubt in a serious amount of pain.

On the other hand, however, Tweak's thermal vision would also catch sight of another patch of warm blood. It was a farther distance away, however, perched on a previously unseen ledge that was jutting out from above the bay doors leading out towards the rest of Squad 35. It was a good distance up along the wall in the large room, roughly 20 feet from the ground; the ledge was most likely an anchoring point for a secondary platform or floor tier that hadn't been added on yet. On closer inspection, Tweak would be able to make the object out to be the squads current intended target; Cassefin Montreal. From Tweak's distance, she could tell that Cassefin was conscious as well, and judging from the direction of her body and her movements, had been watching Tweak's performance for an undetermined amount of time.

---

Kokuten and the rest had no trouble crossing into the hallway connecting their room to Tweak's, now that several of the quahhgs were either incapacitated or in hiding. The hall itself was barren of the snow they had been trudging through, their feet clicking against the pale white tiles as they traveled through the expansive hall connecting the rooms. The bulkhead door opposite of them had been forced open, the edges of the door clawed and bent from a great force.

"He's right, Captain," from the radio link into the squad's helmets, administrator Dick Vanderhuge's voice replied. He had been listening in on the comments thus far, his own team off somewhere else. "Half of Squad 74 got reassigned on route to you; something is going on in one of the central station's docking bay, and it's causing a ruckus. Winston's team is still on its way, however. A good 14 able-bodied men armed with the plasma injectors I provided you. They should be there soon."

Feeling some sort of give from the pull on his helmet, Blake managed to rasp out a smushy face-pressed-against-the-glass, "Lenny? Ith it theab? Dib I khill it?"

Just to make sure, he fired a few more shots into the air, gaging for the pull.

Richard ran into the room Tweak was in and quickly scanned the area. Upon noticing George, he quickly took up a position near him and continued looking about for any hostiles. As he did so, he also began to listen carefully for any sounds that might warn him of an approaching quahhg, trying to put his cybernetically enhanced hearing to good use.

"Miss Montreal..." whispered Tweak when she spotted the Head Administrator. Then she caught sight of Richard.

"No! Stay back!" she shouted. "The quahhg is in the snow!" Unsure if the man had heard her, she started jogging toward George, then stopped. She still held two warheads that were, presumably, the high-explosive variety. If she was going to be able to use them effectively, then she needed the room to do so.

"Hey! Stay back!" she yelled again, waving one arm trying to get his attention. "I have an idea!"

"Alright! Sorry," replied Richard somewhat sheepishly. He hurriedly backed away from George at the neko's command and looked at her. "I'm all ears ma'am."

Kokuten put his arm on Richard's shoulder, a blade holding hand resting just next to the fellows head. The Captain was still bleeding, and he believed that his waning energy was due to just that. Yet, he was still perceptive, e had recognized the weaponry in Tweak's hands. Though, it was best not to question it.

"Tweak!" roared Kokuten through his externals, frustration mounting in his throat. "Switch back to the squad channels! And... Damn it... Damn it..." The Security Officer put his hand to his side, "Have you found Cassefin? She's still unaccounted for!"

Tweak raised her eyebrows at Kokuten's order. Her helmet was still next to the open container. Unless the radio wasn't in the helmet, she was cut off. Wait. She frowned, then closed her eyes. Yeah, she had an internal transmitter. How did he know that? Or did Kokuten not know, but think she still had her helmet with her? Regardless, she tripped her radio on and switched to Squad 35's channel. Kokuten could hear her over the channel now without Tweak speaking aloud.

"The Head Administrator is over that doorway on a ledge. I might be able to get to her, but George needs help fast. The creature is in the snow, but I can't get a thermal lock on it, and I can't help George without limiting my tactical options." There was a pause, then an audible sigh. "I do have a couple ideas on how to deal with this, though, sir. One idea evacuates and seals the room, and the second does that in addition to the destruction of the quahhg. The second one is more risky, though."

Whatever Tweak's plan was, Cassefin wasn't very aware of it. From atop her perch, the Head Administrator could see that Tweak had noticed her and, having watched her dispatch the giant quahhg, scooted over to the edge of the ledge. As she moved closer, the others would see that she was, instead of her comfortably warm white fleece jacket and lab coat, reduced to a simple white tank top, her bare arms shivering slightly as they wrapped around themselves in front of her chest. She appeared otherwise unharmed, feeling comfortable enough to yell down at Tweak through the blizzard.

"Hey! Heeeey! Tweak! Up here! Get me DOWN!"

Kokuten's visor snapped in Cassefin's direction, hearing her call for help, before looking back at Tweak. The Captain tightened his grip on his new rifle, before stabbing it in the snow. His hand free, he tapped his comm button to call the rest of the squad.

"Blake, Serra, is the area around the civilians clear? I'm going need you over here once it's secure." said Kokuten into his helmet's radio. His limp armed swayed as he looked back up at the administrator, gauging her position from where he stood. "Tweak, priority is securing the civilians, the Quahhgs are a secondary concern. We need get her down and with the others so we can hold out for support to arrive. No risks until she's in the clear."

The third option, then. It was always the third option, wasn't it? Tweak murmured a prayer and set out toward George, the closer of the two between Tweak and Kokuten. On the way, Tweak attempted to find a gait that would allow her the quickest movement speed through the drifts.

"George first, then. He needs medical attention; multiple puncture and laceration wounds, mostly in the shoulder area. I'll be dropping him off and immediately going after the Head Administrator." As she radioed the plan to Kokuten, Tweak angled toward the open warhead crate and swapped one of the other warheads out for two more from the flashbang tray, leaving her with two flashbangs and one unknown form of high-explosive warhead. She managed this mid-stride, so her speed was unhindered.

((EDIT: Correcting for continuity later in the story.))

Blake managed to get enough of his head out of the helmet to talk clearly into it.

"I've disabled one of the Horrorfish, sir." He said, matter-of-factly, "My helmet appears to be stuck to its tongue. Lenny's here."

Just in case, he pulled his head the rest of the way out and leaned over to check on Lenny. "Are you injured Mister Binks, sir?" He asked Lenny before ducking back into the helmet for a moment. "I think Lenny's okay. He helped me kill it. There was a civilian, but he ran away from me."

"Tweak! Give him a jab of this!" Kokuten swung his Hypolathe in Tweak's direction, a strong through he knew the Freespacer-Neko hybrid would find hard to miss. "The painkillers will ease him while we wait for support."

He turned to Richard, as he yanked his rifle out of the snow.

"Keep your rifle trained on the snow," warned Kokuten, pointing his weapon out into the empty white space where the Quahhg may have been hiding. "You spot movement of anything larger than an ID-SOL, you call it and you fire." He awkwardly moved the rifle, trying to get the rifle butt to his comm button. "And always make sure you insulate your cybernetics. This cold is murder on my servos."

Blip! his radio went, activated after a bit of frustrating practice.

"Blake! You and Serra get over her and help us secure this room, we're in the one adjacent. Lenny, you guard the civilians."

"Yes sir," Richard nodded in response to the captain's orders. He then resumed cautiously scanning the room and listening for any signs of the unseen quahhg, keeping his rifle at the ready.