RP: Cirrus Station [Episode 2] Little Problems

Keziah had waited for someone to suggest fire. Fire solved all problems! It busted open all holes, cleaned up after itself, and left a nice little calling card. But with the air mixture readings coming in from Flower--it was the high degree of methane that worried her.

And then Serra spoke, and Keziah chewed her virtual lip.


But the marine--James Johnson--was right. Maybe. In a way. If it was so thick, they'd need something powerful to rip the blockage apart. But not too strong, or else they could rupture the sewer system, and send a whole mess of junk out into hard vacuum.

There was an audible sigh from Flower.

James was pissed,

"I'm not a retard Serra. I'm pretty sure that a couple years of military demolitions training has taught me what explosions do what. Next time you have a better idea why don't you suggest something."

James brooded for a moment until Keziah came in


"Well, I guess we could use some sonic charges. A few NAM scalar pulse grenades set to stun should do the trick. They could be shipped up to us through those air-tube things that Montreal loves so much, but I don't know where to call the grenades from."

Snapped Serra through Flower. The man was annoying her in return.

Ozz sat there quietly as Cyril waded through shit and peopled yipped back and forth at each other. He understood their points. Fire was quick...but unpredictable. Sonic charges were also good, but there is still an unknown. Why? That why may cause more harm than good when we apply a solution. He felt strongly about this, but he didn't want to come across as an ass.

"Maybe if we could just get some high power hoses down here, we can chip away at the blockage slowly but surely. Making sure, we do as little damage as possible." Ozz suggested.

He continued, "Its like using the water and pressure to chip away at this big mess little by little. We might have to spend some time, but we can work in shifts. At least, thats my two cents....I guess in the end the decision is up to the commanding officer."

With that, he continued to monitor Cyril making sure he was all right.

Cyril listened to the byplay between the girls topside and JJ silently as he worked. Anything to keep his mind off just what he was sticking his tail into as he ran it across the submerged section of the pipe. really.

While he agreed with Cora about fire being a bad idea, he had to think that she was frankly too abrasive about it. If they were going to be working together, you'd think that she could at least make an effort to get along with her squadmates.

Serra's bitchiness aside, at least JJ had a redeeming idea. The sonic grenades would likely work. It was well within their operational parameters, from what little he remembered of the brief demolitions training he had underwent. But, well, while fire was the spacer's worst enemy, explosions where right there with it, even sonic ones.

Frankly, Ozzy had the most sensible of the ideas. Clearing it out with high pressure hoses seemed the safest course. Hell, even air jets would work. It was slow, yes, but when they had no idea what was under there, slow was a blessing. It would give them time to react to a potential disaster that they wouldn't have mucking about with sonic charges.

Probing a pipe feeding into the main trunk, he voiced his oppinion.

"I reckon that Ozzy 'as the right 'o it. Bombs're too chancy."

The volumetric image of Kess and Mimi stood next to the individuals topside, monitoring their actions with quiet assessment. Mimi seemed extraordinarily happy, as usual...but Kess seemed to understand the situation for what it was to normal people.

"I seriously doubt we would be given access to charges of any kind for this type of job" Kess stated blankly. "The pressure hoses would work fine for gradual breaking-down...but it appears the build-up has engulfed them. They were on the catwalk while Peke was here."

Everyone was suggesting, for better or worse, very good ideas for dealing with this messy problem.

---

While elsewhere, up in the cleaner, whiter and much less revolting Grand Atrium, Head Administrator Cassefin Montreal stood triumphantly on her hovering platform as the last of the onlookers filed into the witness the Cirrus Station's first station-wide Vogel jump. Most of the crowed consisted of curious ship personnel and scientists, and only a handful of security members. Cassefin herself was quite ecstatic, smirking widely and wringing her hands with anticipation. A large, detailed virtual representation of the Cirrus and her surroundings hovered delicately in the center of the Gran Atrium, viewable by all those in the area.

"Welcome guests!" Cassefin spoke, her voice amplified to fill the room as her platform fluttered towards the volumetric image. "You are all about to witness not this station's first test of the Mass Vogel Drive, which will displace our new home from Nepleslia Prime's orbit into the exciting new reaches of the Colonial Expanse. From there, we shall continue with our projects among the newest of Nepleslia's colony systems!" Cirrus...initiate the jump!" Cassefin shouted in triumph, throwing our an extended finger for emphasis' sake.

After a few short moment, the station experienced a slight shake as the Vogel drives primed themselves before releasing their energy. The displacement was instantaneous; one moment, the volumetric Cirrus was behind Nepleslia Prime...and the next moment, it was free-floating amongst a cluster of space construction equipment in the orbit of another world. It was very disappointing for anyone but the most fervent of onlookers...Cassefin, of course, absolutely beaming with smug pride as she looked over her staff.

Cassefin suddenly found herself confronted with a small volumetric window as the Cirrus cooled down and settled in. The image of another young woman appeared on the other side of the screen, a look of worried frustration plaguing her attractive brow. Cassefin took her harrowing gaze with speculation.

"Yes, Purina, what is it?" Cassefin said.
"Head Administrator, it is as I predicted; most of the animals on my facility were frightened by the hyperstream jump. Although we may not have felt it, the bio-organics and their higher senses have taken notice to the change." Purina replied, pushing a stray bang of delicate pink hair behind her ear.
"Alright...is the Bio-Organic Research and Containment facility in immediate danger?" Cassefin asked, her eyes narrowing slightly.
"None that I know of," Purina replied with a sheepish smile. "I just thought you would like to know. Any further Vogel jumps will cause a ruckus down here in Bio-Organics."

"I'll keep it in mind."

---

The Vogel jump was not very noticeable by any of Security Squad 35...but something did become apparent. A slight rumble in the pipeline shook the masses of equipment on the ceiling and rattled the catwalks.

"Was that the Vogel jump?" Mimi wondered, her eyebrows furling.

And then, there came a low, grumble. It was faint at first...but quickly grew louder and more prominent as it echoed through the pipeline. The catwalks began to shake violently as the mound of muck quickly exploded with action. A figure, massive in its size, lifted itself from the dam, immediately breaking the catwalk below it as it reached skyward. Another sound filled the pipe once more...a foreign sound, loud and obviously emitting from the creature raised from the pipeline's build-up, like a bubbling roar of anger as it shook itself off, sending wads of goopy horridness flying against the pipe around it.

Back above the sewer grate, the rumbling and roar were quite noticeable by the other members of the security squad. Mimi clasped her hands over her mouth in a gasp...but Kess seemed worried in a more practical sense.

"Mimi."
"Yes, Kess?"

"Tell Popjoy we just found her missing Muck Shambler larvae."

A brief, harsh, clacking-whizzing mechanical noise came from Flower as two hatches opened on his spherical hull and two telescopic arms came out: one from above, equipped with an industrial-grade high-power laser, and another one from below, some kind of squat-looking coil gun.


The little droid trained his improvised weaponry on the... the thing, but didn't react.

In realspace, Dream turned around to face Mimi and Kess. "Is that thing dangerous? What's it doing down there?"

Cyril looked around the tunnel when the rumbling began. No matter what it was, that was a bad sound to hear when you were waste deep in sewage. He quickly wrapped his tail around the catwalk railing above him, expecting some sort of sewage tsunami.

Of course, when the roaring turned out to come from behind him, he realized that the acoustics in the tunnel were a little screwy. Rapidly releasing his hold on the railing as the entire catwalk jerked up half a meter, he turned to see a massive... thing... haul itself out of the blockage. Drawing his sidearm, he tried to decide whether or not this was worse.

"Think we found our blockage..."

As the -thing- lifted from the sewage, Ozz lifted his arms to deflect any flying mess. He quickly sized up the beast and readied his sidearm.

Kevyn said:

"Think we found our blockage..."

Click to expand...

"All we need now is an industrial strength laxative." Ozz quipped, "Thankfully, we might have one." he finished as he trained his weapon on the animal.

On com for the whole team but mainly to Dream, "Ma'am, I'm sure you've noticed our visitor, orders?"

Dream wasn't used to military action, that's for sure. And it showed.

But, despite her appearance, she still had the surprising amount of common sense that is common among Freespacers.


This is why I hate restricted information systems, she thought.

"Some 'splainations would be good, like, now, Kess."

That was the last message carried through virtual space as Keziah disconnected from Dream's mind. The crash back to reality was jarring, as it always was, but this carried with it a sense of emptiness. Of deprivation.

She swallowed it back and thumbed her helmet shut. The seal hissed as the oxygen system was routed into activity. "I'm going down to assist," she said over the comm-system as she freed her rifle and launched herself into the sewer system. No time for ladders, her enhanced legs took the impact against the walkway easily, and she broke into a full run, towards the other marines, and Flower.

James jaw dropped as he watched the massive....worm? pull itself out of the raw sewage.

"Shit."

Countless hours of intense military training was the only thing that prevented the marine from doing something irrational, like trying to blow the thing up. James quickly sprinted to another section of the catwalk that wasn't so close to the gaping hole, slipping on the brown goop being flung everywhere as he made his way over.

As he reached a corner near an intersection, the marine slipped again and landed flat on his stomach, leaving him prone. James quickly pulled himself into a kneeling position and whirled around to face the great monstrosity. The marine quickly pulled out his weapon and aimed it at the beast while his enhanced eyes scanned it over for any signs of weakness or even a good soft spot.

Ready to open fire, James asked Dream through the comm.

"It's a Beadicus Longlegus...or the nickname for it, Muck Shambler, works as well," Kess said with urgency as she continued to stare blankly, most if not all her attention focused on the cameras below the armory deck. "It's a newly discovered specimen from one of the outer colony world. Starts in a larval form and lives most of its live in the decaying matter of its swamp-like habitat...which explains why it was able to grow this big down here."

---

As the creature rose from the floor, it's shape became more apparent in the dim pipeline. The shambler was quite large and strangely simple, a spheroid body lacquered in a brackish hue supported by four long, thick jointed legs, perfectly perpendicular to the main body. The pipeline was still too dim to make out any more detailed features, however the shambler quickly and easily reached the topmost area of the pipe, and yet still had to bend its legs to stand stable in the drain system.

From somewhere amongst the sphere-like body, another guttural growl rang out, and without warning, the Shambler began plowing its way back towards the other end of the pipe, taking chunks of catwalk out with little more than nudges from its enormous appendages. It was moving away from James, and directly toward Tweak, Ozz, Cyril and Flower.

---

"Administrator Purina Popjoy reported that her personnel had misplaced a Muck Shambler caught in the larval stage..." Kess continued as she ran a hand across her volumetric hair. "...I'm not sure how it got in here, but it needs to be stopped before it causes real damage to the station."

Serra just stared at the display in her hand, while Mimi and Kess rambled on. The last bit caught her ear a latched on like a leech.

"HOW THE HELL DO YOU MISPLACE SOMETHING AS BIG AS THAT?!" She hollered as she looked up at the savtechs. Which also carried over the commlink, along with what the two savetechs said.

The TOS wasn't whispering anymore. It was analyzing the beast-grub by the millisecond, highlighting weak spots and listing routes of evasion and escape. Tweak listened, but she didn't know what she was supposed to do: Kill it? She settled for "disable", which seemed to be the most urgent thing on the agenda...this thing was tearing the tube's maintenance gear apart.

As it started moving toward her, Tweak focused on its legs, trying to figure out if she could damage them enough to slow it down or stop its movement altogether...

"No!" Tweak closed her eyes and shook her head. "Back to the hatch, now!" she yelled, opening her eyes back up as she shoved the TOS back in its corner and turned to Cyril and Ozz. Flower wasn't much of a worry for her, the Junker's hull was quite thick...and it was currently bringing a pair of weapons on the creature.

Ozz almost gasped at the sight of the monster. Before he could process it, it was plowing towards him and his squad members. It was like a flash, he heard Tweak yell to get back to the hatch, he felt Flower's weapons lift towards the creature. He wasn't sureif it was the fear or the rush of action, but he simply reacted.

"You heard the pretty lady, drop back!" he shouted as he raised his gun at the monster.

Over the com in his helmet he started, "Can we get Flower to lay down some cover?!" Then to James he added,"Lets see what Montreal's caseless rounds do on the arse of this thing....lay some cover for us....if it comes at you....run!"

Then he tapped Cyril on the shoulder as he back pedaled quickly towards the hatch.

"Hope you have some super soldier ideas in that experienced head of yours......otherwise we're going to be squished by a giant bug." he added as he moved.

Dream simply nodded at Kess' explanation. "Hope Popjoy won't mind if she loses a specimen, but those guys down there are in my care." She stated simply. Then waving her hand in a needlessly dramatic gesture, she shouted, both in realspace and in virtual space:

Flower, use the bolt driver!

Click to expand...

Obediently enough, the multi-colored Junker droid stood taller on his four spiderlike legs. From the squat gun-like thing that had sprouted from his belly came the whizzing, high-pitched noise of an electromagnetic field building up power...

...and then everything was covered in a deafening noise that could only be described as that of two chainsaws trying to cut each other for one second.

At 1200 rpm, that second of fire was enough for the Junker's bolt driver to put 20 rounds into the creature.
Of course, they weren't real bullets. Some junkers mounted also a separate magazine with 25mm armor-piercing rounds for self-defense, but Flower didn't.

Still better than using the cutting laser, or, even worse, firearms, in a place that was probably filled with flammable gas.

Keziah ran as fast as she could, one eye switching to infrared as she rounded the bend and saw the monster. Ahead of her was James, kneeling, rifle aimed. Beyond that was ruined catwalk. The metal was sagging and dipping down into the sewer system. There wasn't much of a way across, unless she wanted to swim. The Shambler was steadily disappearing, but it was slow, and was a big target.

Keziah raised her rifle, aiming at the thing's legs, and thumbed the burst selector. No sense waiting.

Then came Dream's order, and gunfire sawed through the air. It was deafening. She almost didn't hear her own rifle go off the first time. The gentle pulse of the mass driver, the thrum of the magnets through her arm; those were her only clues. She fired again, and again.

Ozzy said:

"Hope you have some super soldier ideas in that experienced head of yours......otherwise we're going to be squished by a giant bug."

Click to expand...

"Yeah, I got one. KEEP FIRING!!!" Cyril put action to his words, adding a clip's worth of .45 rounds into the thing's center of mass. It was like piss in a rainstorm compared to the fire coming from those thoughtful marines who had brought their rifles down and the hail of bolts from Flower. But every little bit of firepower helped, and who knew, he might get lucky and strike a vital.

Mag exhausted, he thumbed the release, dropping the spent magazine into the muck he was standing in. Unbuckling one of his ammo pouches and pulling out a fresh mag with his tail, he reloaded and opened up once more.

Following suit, Ozz began to fire at the beast. Who knew if they would be successful, but it was something. He concentrated his fire on the first joint-like spot of the animal's first leg hoping it might come down before it ran over them.