RP: Cirrus Station [Episode 5] A Unique Encounter

As he flung himself upward at the Unique with the xazer, he met a large chunk of durandium and carbon ring coming down to meet him in the opposite direction. The butt of the xaser rifle caught him full in the faceplate, sending a collection of spiderweb fractures across the dark amber material but failing to actually brake through. He would have almost found that interesting, if he had time to actually process it happening as a he bounced backwards into blackness.

He woke up he had to assume not more then a second or two later in a fully lit version of the docking bay. Squinting against the light, Cyril hear Laj saying something or another while he rang a little bell at Cyril in a really annoying way.

"Oh, would you just fucking stop talking, you jackass." Cyril mumbled indistinctly as he slowly picked himself up. He winced as the motion shook up little dancing angels of light in the corners of his vision, and a feeling roughly approximating someone dragging a soldering iron across his prefrontal cortex. Closing his eyes tightly, Cyril paused on all fours for a moment. Great, a concussion, just what he always wanted.

Taking a deep breath, Cyril shuffled over towards Keziah. "How badly you hurt Kaz?"

"Great," she breathed, looking away from Laj. "I never was any good at card games."

The gunfire had stopped, and shouting had erupted in the form of Montreal and... the Yamataian? Keziah frowned, processing the information, when she heard Cyril ask her something. She stared at him, uncomprehending, for several long seconds. The cracked plate of his visor was a surprise, she hadn't even heard him get hit.

Heard... he had said something, right? Her brain slowly ratcheted back into gear. "I'll be fine," she said after a while, reaching up and pulling off her armor, starting with the breastplate. The threat had passed now, so Keziah wanted to get a proper look at her wound. She tossed the plate away, and looked at Cyril more carefully. "You look like you're in worse shape."

Deacon grit his teeth and a deep growl rumbled in his chest as the hand fell on his shoulder, he reached up to grab the wrist and pull his assailant into a shoulder throw, but that was before he realized it was Serra, and instead just brushed her hand off his shoulder.

"It's my job...I am security personnel, and that means I have to be a 'good dog' and keep my squad safe..."

The last part was said with such acid and venom it was obvious that Deacon was toeing that razor's edge between dutiful restraint, and homicide. He looked back only once for the identification of Serra, and then lumbered down the hall mumbling in his native tongue as he hunched over. Truth be told, he looked very much like the old school RPG gnolls as he disappeared around the corner and headed for the observation room, his growling and muttering echoing off the scorched walls.

"Oooh, it's just a little concussion Kaz. I've done worse." Cyril said quietly as he popped the faceplate on his helmet. Finding out that it only opened halfway now, Cyril gave up and popped it off. Crappy piece of shit, couldn't even be counted on to protect from a concussion. He may as well have just been wearing his garrison cap.

Tossing the helmet halfheartedly at Laj, Cyril pulled up a piece of crate next to Kaz. She said that he was in worse shape, but she was pretty out of it herself. Cyril her over with a concerned, if slightly dazed, expression trying to figure the extent of her injuries. "That was a hell of a fall you took back there. You want me to stagger off and get you a med kit? The shooting seems to have died down."

"No, I landed on my feet, that's good enough." She shifted, popping her backpack and her armplates off, letting them fall to the deck around her. "I've survived worse."

With half her armor off now, she gave one last look to Laj, before turning around and unzipping the front of her undersuit. Keziah was infinitely thankful that she had a bra on to keep her modesty safe. That thought dissolved as she took in the hand-sized chunk of cherry red flesh.

The xaser had hit her on the side of the abdomen, leaving behind withered, melted flesh that spread outwards until it was as big as her hand. She pulled the suit open more, and the burn moved across her side to form a mirror image on her back. It burned, more than ever, now that she had seen it.

Keziah breathed out slowly, trying to ignore the pain. "I'll need way more than a medkit."

Stovaa hammered the "open door" button as the Uniques turned and fled. Instead of clambering over the half-open, half-closed door though, he went through his ammo, dropping the empties to the floor. Down to his last three rounds.

A prompt salute and a namecheck. "Captain Abeck, sir."

He stared at the melted wall where the plasma blast had hit. "Uh, anyone know where I can get me one of those?"

Neither Tweak's visual range nor her knowledge of pre-existing camera devices reveal monitoring systems in place in any of the ventilation ducts or maintenance tracks in the previous parts of the station. The weapons laboratories proved to be no different; for now, Tweak was out of sight and out of mind.

---

As Captain Abeck and his group passed the large (now cooled) molten hole created by the amplified energy weapon, he was visibly taken aback by it. He looked a little concerned until Stovaa made his jest about it as they passed it on the way to the docking bay, the large ID-SOL aloofness allowing the guard captain to believe that the gaping hole was a good thing. "I look forward to hearing about it," he said, allowing a small measure of relief to permeate through his dedication to the task at hand.

By the time Abeck and the remainder of Squad 35 had reached the now-functional elevator leading down to the docking bay, several CSS members began discovering the several signs of combat around the room; particularly the corpses of both pirate scum and Cirrus Station loading crew alike. There was a lot of chatter going on through radio and communication links...but still no sign of any Savtech. Perhaps not all of the Weapon Lab subsystems were active yet.

Before long, Marrisa reappeared running down the ramp to join Laj, while all of the Uniques gathered around him, attempting to help him stand and assess his injuries. One of the CSS guardsmen caught sight of this and began waving his hand and hollering to the back of the room where Cassefin grimly surveyed the surroundings.

"Head Administrator, we need a doctor over here!"

When Cassefin saw just what he meant, all of the color in her face immediately flushed out of her face. The very fact that Cassefin wasn't berating every Cirrus Station Security employee she crossed was evidence enough that she knew that, in some manner, her goose was going to get cooked...if it hadn't been already. A handful of medical personnel surveying the corpses behind the Vinross Yu-Cranker ship immediately ran to the two CEO's side, asking how they could be of assistance and radioing for lifting gear. Laj smiled weakly at them, explaining that he believed he would be alright. Marrisa barked orders in frustration at the Cirrus Station medics.

One of the doctors noticed Keziah and Cyril, kneeling down beside them. "Are you two alright?" He asked rather redundantly, even though he could clearly see something wrong with Keziah's midriff.

While all of this was going on, Captain Abeck had led the group of Squad 35 stragglers together, reuniting them at Cassefin. The Head Administrator was looking quite drained...but not enough to stem the flow of questions she had for them. "What the hell happened? What..." she glanced over at the bodies of her crewmen behind the ship, as well as the pirates in the center of the bay. "Someone tell me what happened." She spoke in more of a pleading manner than that of an actual order, the severity of the situation no doubt weighing heavily upon her thoughts.

"Simply put? The CEOs and pirates were working together, and their space hooker bodyguards tried to kill us after killing everybody else." Lance summed up, not attempting to sugarcoat anything in the least. "I'm not sure of all the details, but that's about as blunt as it gets with what I've figured out."

"In more words," Noboru extrapolated, "The power went out shortly before Laj shot the pirates that were "in league" with him. The Uniques proceeded to spread out to clear the station while we, unbeknownst to their intentions- we being Claire, Keziah, Cyril and I- went vent combing to search for a way to open the door to the weapons lab." The Yamataian cracked his knuckles as he continued. "The Uniques inside the lab's observations room shot Administrator Vanderhuge, although it only hit a glancing blow. We gave him medical attention and fell back to the lab proper."

At this point, Noboru twitched a little. Sooner or later, Cassifin was going to find out about the new passage melted into her station. "We attempted to establish a safe-point in the weapons lab by creating a barrier in front of the stairwell, but the Uniques simply bypassed it. We used a supercharged plasma cannister to dispatch two of the four Uniques advancing on our position-" Noboru conveniently left out the part about blowing a hole in the wall- "and the other two retreated before we could confirm a kill. Then I went down to the hangar bay. As for Keziah and Cyril, I can only assume they ended up here because they went further on down the vents while the rest of Squad 35 fell back to the Weapons Labs."

He shrugged. "The Uniques caught us guard, but we fought them back- well, sort of. Lance put it quite well."

"Why is it you only notice these things after the shooting stops?"

Claire muttered a bit as she came down the stairs, holding her hand over a tear in the uniform around her left thigh. A couple shots had grazed her, but didn't hit anything serious nor did the bullet stay in. During all the crazyness going on, she hadn't taken notice as she tried to give as much covering fire to her teammates as she could.

Once in the dock, she glanced around, taking note of the remaining uniques and their leaders, Cassefin who looked about as scared as she did angry, and... "Keziah! You're alive, thank goodne-" As she ran up to her friend, she stopped cold when she saw the xaser burn on her middrift. "Oh god, what happened?" Claire walked up to Keziah, glancing at her wound again before returning her gaze to Kaz's eyes. She wore an expression of genuine concern and worry. She was no medic, that's what the others were around for, but she didn't like seeing these things on people she liked.

"Goddamn space hookers shot every body, ma'am." Stovaa shouted, glaring towards the Uniques. "Power downed, Pirates in, then Uniques wasted everybody in the room before working their way up the stairs to us."

He rested his hand on his holstered pistol, looking to make eye contact with one of the 'invaders' who had been previously trying to kill him. "I'd guess they were after the tech stored here. After all, who'd suspect them of doing anything like this? It's hiding in plain sight..." Stovaa spat disdainfully. "I understand this looks bad..."

"Xaser hit." Cyril said for Keziah. He didn't exactly know just where everyone had come from, but he was glad to see familiar uniforms. It even sounded like the other members of the squad were already explaining things to the administraitor, which was good. It meant that no one could come up with some insane reason to keep Kaz

Now that the adrenaline rush was ebbing, Cyril noticed a small, sharp pain in his left lung that he hadn't really noticed in the fight. Cyril did his best to ignore the the pain. He had probably just gotten hit by something when he fell from the vent. Kaz was in much worse shape. Pushing himself up the crate he spoke to one of the medics tending to Laj. "Ne're mind the traitor, someone needs to... get..."

As Cyril pulled himself up to try and offer his help the small persistent pain bloomed into full form. It was like someone had stabbed him in the chest with a thermal lance. Not even having the breath to grunt out a protest, let alone scream like his body tried to, Cyril simply toppled forwards into oblivion. The first person to take off Cyril's CSS Suit would find a pair of matched, palm sized xaser burns on his front and back where the beam of x-ray radiation had passed through the bottom of his lung.

Noboru caught Cyril falling out of the corner of his eye. He immediately turned to look, dumbfounded, at his little buddy before his thoughts came back to him. "Medic!" he crowed, gesturing towards Cyril as he sprinted over and turned the ship mechanic-turned-security officer onto his back, releasing the breastplate of his CSS Suit's armor. He noted the bruises from the Xaser "round" that had punched through his chest. He immediately lifted Cyril into a sitting position against one of the crates and continued to wave over a medic until one actually arrived.

Speedy remained in the back, silent. He was hoping he wouldn't be noticed; since it was he who blew the hole in the wall with his weapon, even though it wasn't idea... Well, he also didn't expect it to have that much oomph, but since it was his weapon, he would get all the flak. So he stood there, silent, visor closed, still clutching with his left hand on his VW.

Seeing Claire, relief flooded through her. She hadn't even thought about what had happened to the rest of the squad, too concerned and caught up in the fighting and its aftermath. But seeing her, knowing that they were all right...

Keziah didn't say anything, just turned around and hugged Claire tightly. None of them were dead, miraculously, so that was good enough. Medics swirled around and Cyril spoke and--

He fell. She was too slow, too tired to do anything to stop it. Everything moved slowly, seeing the Yamataian--Noboru, right--run up and pull off Cyril's armor, distantly hearing the call for a medic, even though one was hovering right next to them. She looked away, sneaking a kiss to Claire's cheek before dropping back to the deckplates, sitting against a crate like Cyril.

"I hate xasers," she muttered, holding her hands over her burn now.

Jen finally felt like she had the energy to get back up and walk up to where the others had gathered. She glanced at Speedy and roped her arm around his neck saying, "Hey don't act so glum, even if you were the one to get in trouble you saved our asses back there. Hell I'd take your place in the brig if I could!" The Nepleslian still had bitter thoughts about the people attempting to commit suicide, though keeping herself cheerful placed those thoughts away from her mind for now.

Also her right arm that was roped around the man's neck still clutching the compact. Her gun was already slung on her bank, exhausted of any ammo however.

With no contacts registered, Tweak hoped that she was right about being in a blind spot of the station's internal sensors. Setting the book down on the floor, she closed her eyes.

Blood flowed out of her ports as she held her stealth until the last possible second. It flowed until it completely encased her body as her breathing grew heavy; this was taking more resources than she'd ever used in recent (or written) memory. Minutes passed before sections of her civvies appeared where the red liquid retreated. After a long while she finally found herself in replicated clothing; a long-sleeved shirt, knee-length canvas shorts, and socks and sandals with a bandanna covering her ears and hair to finish the outfit off.

Tweak leaned back against the wall of the duct, sliding down it to sit on the floor. Too much synthesis...she had hoped to be able to replicate her ruined armor, but it wasn't looking like that was going to happen. Even something as small as the knife had been was taxing, mostly due to what it was made of. Her clothing was easier, but there was a lot of it. The armor suit, being a rather dense and complex synthetic, would just about take the rest of what she could do, possibly more, and that was not counting the plates.

I need to find something to alter. Or an energy source. Tweak sighed, then looked down at herself. Or she could just change her clothing to match the undersuit, that wouldn't take much more. Certainly a lot less than adding the suit to what she already had. After a break, she decided. Then she would go back. But first a break...

"Glum? You know, I'm just really tired..." Speedy mumbled through his visor. He shifted his weapon to his right hand. 'First day on a new assignment, we get betrayed but the people we where supposed to protect, I nearly got killed... Twice; and when we try to stop the criminals, we're chastised for doing our job..." He sighed, and continued, barely audible. "Justice is bullshit."

The small group around Cassefin gave the explanation Squad 35 had given the exasperated Head Administrator a varied assortment of expressions. Most of them seemed quite shocked, not by the idea itself, but at the unbelievability of it. Cassefin herself shook her head slowly, displaying her own disbelief for their answer.

"That...that doesn't make any sense!" She said in a lowered voice, glancing over at the Vinross Yu-Cranker ship. A handful of Cirrus medical staff were helping the Uniques escort Laj into the ship. Marrisa stood at the base of the access ramp to their ship, watching them move up but for the moment not following. "There were pirates, they tore through the station to get here! One of them was able to unlatch itself from the hull and escape! And you're trying to say that it was Vinross Yu-Cranker that planned this? Do you have any idea what you're suggesting? What makes you so sure they did it?"

While Cassefin didn't sound the least bit convince, Abeck had a deep fixated stare following each part of the conversation, remaining silent.

"Well," Noboru said, standing up from Cyril's side and walking back over to join the group. "It was the CEO's private security force that attacked us..." Noboru faked several various pondering expressions while he went through the evidence. "Their suits automatically burnt them to cinders whenever one fell in combat, along with their weapons... From the look of that suit Canker was wearing and the fact that Cyril and Keziah were pinned in the hangar, I would guess that the entire crew came armed for combat."

Noboru shrugged sarcastically. "Eh, that's all I've got."