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RP: Cirrus Station [Episode 7] It's All Fun and Trains

Blake stumbled around the car as it tossed and turned and eventually found himself wedged between Lenny and the control console. He looked behind him at the crane hooked onto the massive tram car. He was struck with a bolt of inspiration. What if, just if... I could push the crane car forwards enough to stop the crazy rampaging tram? With a few more seconds of inner-dialogue, he decided that nothing could go wrong and pushed the accelerator lever as far forward as it would go.

"That ought a do... something." He reassured himself. Twice.

"Uh, something."
 
It did something.

The crane cart, spurred on by Blake's less-than-subtle touch, jolted forward at an incredible speed, bringing the accompanying crane cart with it. The edge of the maintenance car, held in a lower position compared to the bottom of the rear car, gave no give as the speeding objects collided. The force of the blow, in fact, did something more than Blake had originally intended; the rear coupling which held the rear tram car to the rail shattered as it was hit by the hard edge of the crane cart, and as a result, the entire rear of Tram 2 sank onto the track. The sounds of rushing wind and clattering metal was quickly replaced by deafening screeches as and rear carriage weighed heavily upon the tram's speed.

---

Atop the tram, Keziah's struggle with the junkers was suddenly cut short as the rear car jerked the entire tram's forward acceleration. The junkers, obviously not anticipating the sudden change in motion, were sent flying forward in front of the tram while Keziah rolled helplessly, thrown by the motions, off the side of the tram. By a bizarre stroke of luck, the tram was passing by one of the four tram stations located around the Cirrus, and instead of crashing dangerously into the clear durandium tunnel walls the soldier careened into a large patch of decorative shrubbery. The confused onlookers of the incident were quick to rush to the aid of the fallen CSS member.

---

Back along the tracks, the crane carts had unfortunately reached their final legs. The weight of the rear car had caused something of a chain-reaction with the tram couplings farther along the track, each one pressured into finally shattering themselves, further adding to the extreme drag pulling away at the tram. Eventually, Blake's chance had accomplished somewhat accomplished what they had set out to do... they were now in a relatively safe position as their acceleration began to sharply decline and the tram was coming to a stop.

It's a shame that it was the wrong one.

---

With the makeshift bridge between the two trams held in suspension by Stovaa, the remainder of the passengers were able to move to the safety of the controlled tram, while Squad 35 transferred across in their place. Seconds after Stovaa himself leaped the gap onto the safety of the adjacent tram, the chain of events happening farther down the track behind them had begun affecting them. The team could do little more than watch as the tram opposite of them began to quickly fade from view, laden with thankful passengers, leaving the surviving team members with nowhere to go but forward.

Despite all distractions and some rather troublesome hurdles, Squad 35 had accomplished a handful of goals: the runaway tram was now, apparently, vacant of all innocent bystanders, and a handful of lucky members had made it onto the tram. However, the malfunctioning tram was still quite a danger to that station as it continued to speed along unfettered. With the large collection of debris now blocking the track behind them, it would appear that their window of accident-free opportunity was becoming smaller with each passing second.

The diminutive Freespacer Administrator, Peke-Twenty-Two, had followed closely behind the large ID-SOL Stovaa, looking up at him as she directed their attention to the doors leading to the adjacent tram car. "Good job, Stove. Now..." the green-haired 'Spacer clapped once and kept her hands clasped together, peering around to Stovaa's back and up and down his posterior inquisitively. "...do you have a seat, oooorrrrr do people just ride you bareback?" Although it was uncertain, Peke might have been referring to a seat similar to the one she had on her Automata partner, Goat, who was apparently not present at the moment.
 
Noboru couldn't stifle a chuckle at Peke's choice of words. He made a loud raspberry noise as his face reddened while Peke spoke. Eventually, his absurd bout of laughter wore off. He analysed the squad around him and then took inventory of his own belongings. His goggles had fallen down around his neck, which wasn't irreparable but irked him somewhat, as his hair was now down and pestering his eyes.

His Variable Weapon was fresh out of ammunition, and it now hung from the side of his backpack, looking dejected. His .45 pistol, hanging low on his hip, had about half of a magazine left, with one spare magazine remaining. Noboru shrugged. "So," He said, "I suppose someone here has to have a plan? 'Cos I sure as hell don't."
 
Why in the world are things happening like this? Kokuten thought as he watched the civilians disappear down the line of track whilst the tram carrying them moved further and further into the face of danger. He had only been trying to calm down and ferry the passengers to Tram 2, not exactly paying the greatest deal of attention to the situation.

The Staff Sergeant's heart was beating quickly, fear filling up his senses, which showed in how his eyes weakly flickered with light behind his visor. He wasn't sure what was going on, and it seemed like he wouldn't for very long.

"Okay..." Kokuten started with little resolve, looking at the rest of the CSS members on the tram. He seemed to stare for a moment, after which he regained his senses.

"Okay!" Kokuten restated, clapping his hands together, "This tram isn't going to stop lightly, and nor can we leave it to its own devices." Even though his expertise was one-half medical, one-half soldier, he knew that machines weren't mysterious magical things. He clapped his hands again.

"Quickly! Let's find someway to cut the power to this tram!" ordered the Cyborg, looking at the walls, but gave one more glance back to them. "If anyone has better ideas, we need to hear them now!"
 
At least the civvies weren't in danger anymore.

Unfortunately for Claire and the others in the squad, they were still on the rails of a crazy train (tram). To that end, she was sure this ride would come to a sudden and possibly painful stop if they didn't do something.

"Hey, um... Wheres the manual brake for this thing? It's gotta have one unless Cassie likes defying industrial safety protocols... Not that it'll stop this thing, but I'd like to slow down before we hit something and become a bunch of meat pancakes." The analogy sounded strange coming from her, but she wanted to convey exactly what would happen if they didn't at least try. As for her, she never drove a tram so she didn't know which of the many levers it was and she wasn't about to accelerate the thing by pulling the wrong one.
 
Method had been thrown from the crane tram as it went around the track, and before she knew it she found herself clinging onto the edge of Stovaa's door-bridge by her fingertips. It took her a moment to haul herself up, her boots just barely scraping against the rails as they whizzed by underneath. Once she was safely on the door, she rolled onto the runaway tram with a grunt and stared up at her fellow security squad members, lying on her back.
 
"Uh, well, I'm not really bred for riding..." the id-sol stammered. Peke's statement threw him off for a few moments. Did she think he was some kind of horse? Just as he began to state his reply, Claire piped up.

"Uh, you could sit on my shoulders if you want, Ma'am. Kinda... bareback riding..." His mind derailed, the combination of what he was saying and hearing Claire's voice sending him back, through a haze of alcohol-induced memory loss. A warm hotel room, a pitcher of whiskey and the corruption of the flesh. For a second, he almost remembered, images of Claire flickered across his vision and then he was lost again. He stared into space for a few moments before the sounds of something nudging his boot brought him around. Stovaa looked down and say Method.

"Uh... h...hey..." The tram shuddered and his brain snapped back to the present.

"I guess the brake would be up front? Peke, want a ride up front?"
 
Deacon had made it across the bridge about halfway through the ferrying operation, while the more able bodied passengers were deciding which would go first after the less able bodied. The Kohanian had helped where he could, but even with his limited medical training there really was nothing that he could do for the people, so he stayed out of the way.

Now that things seemed to be back to the usual "CSS Team Building Exercise" they were famous for, he felt a little more at ease. He began making his way towards the door behind Kokuten when the leader of the team came to his decision, trying not to snicker at the comments made by the small Freespacer.

He didn't have much in the way of supplies, having lost the HHG he had brought with him on the mission, and his variable weapon during the fun times trying to get onto Tram 1. All he had with him was his CSS Suit, and his katana on his back. He would just have to hope that his losses would not outweigh the team's gains.
 
"Manual breaks would be located in the Engineering car." Serra pipped in from wherever she was standing, nursing a scratch on her thigh she got from that errant junker. "Mm, I hope this doesn't scar..." She softly mutters to herself, before looking back. "Miss Montreal was rather through in her design of the trams, Commander," she said to Kokuten, "All primary systems are in the lead engineering car. At best I could hack the lights and darken the place from anywhere else on the tram."

She took a second from overdramatizing her at best non-injury to notice Deacon's missing weapons. "Here, Deacon, you can use my rifle, I'm not needed in any combat situations and I need my hands free for mechanical purposes." She said, offering her Variable to the Kohanian.
 
Peke was already in the process of scaling Mount Stovaa long before the ID-SOL gave his answer, grunting lightly as she scaled her way through his armor plates. "The Big Birdie is right," Peke said as she swung her legs around the large ID-SOL's shoulders, gripping his helmet like a pair of handle bars. "The tram brakes are in the front, and so is Goat. We gotta go get him! Hyaah!" The diminutive Freespacer Administrator clapped her sandal-clad heels against Stovaa's upper body.

The front of the tram was not far off; two cars ahead of them, to be exact. The tram cars were not directly connected, each one having an exit on the front and back (strictly for maintenance purposes) and on either side for embarking and disembarking passengers. A simple, short metal catwalk connected the trams together. Squad 35 could still faintly make out the light skitters and scuttles of Junker drones above them, but for the moment things seemed relatively quiet.
 
Kokuten nodded to Peke as she explained the situation. After looking towards the front of the car, he moved up to the door. He surveyed outside the window for a moment to see the empty cat walk between the two doors of the trams.

"Alright, we need to get moving to the front car!" Kokuten tapped his fist on the door and opened it up, stepping out first, his rifle pointing towards the catwalk. Then he stepped outside onto the catwalk, pointing the rifle up at the air. While he looked around cautiously, holding himself with one hand on the door. He seemed to think for a moment.

"Deacon, Claire, clear the cars ahead of us. Noboru, we'll watch the rear. Stovaa, Serra, Method, stay behind the forward party and in front of the rear party." Ordered Kokuten back at the Squad in a volume loud enough to for them to hear amongst the ruckus going on. He poked his rifle towards the car ahead to signal Deacon and Claire to advance.
 
"No!" Method replied cheerfully to Kokuten's orders. She turned around and sprinted out the rear exit of their tram car, punting the door open with one heavily-booted foot. Once she was out on the rear catwalk, she clambered up the roof access ladder at speeds that nearly broke the sound barrier, doing a twirl off the top and barely catching onto the tops of the ladder as she forgot the tram's momentum.
 
Kokuten's head darted at Method for a moment when he heard the cheery 'No'. The glow behind his visor flickered for a moment, light red tints flashing before blurring back into his normal green. This was the cyborg's version of a handless facepalm.

"Noboru!" Kokuten pointed at Akio, and then at the rear door that had been kicked open. Hinting the man to try and retrieve the Freespacer, or at the very least have someone near-by.
 
Once he'd recieved his orders and Peke was sat comfortably on his shoulders (and started kicking him, but he didn't really feel it,) Stovaa started to wander down the tram, ducking low under the doorframe so he didn't accidentally kill an administrator with blunt force trauma.

"If you know where the brake is, Peke... Why wasn't it already pulled? I mean, uh, with all due respect, are we gonna walk in on something silly, like a rampaging superrobot or a room with a big hole in the floor?" Immediately after he'd said it, he had a sinking feeling. In the pit of his stomach, he knew that there was gonna be something in that room.
 
Deacon took the offered weapon from the Elysian and nodded his thanks. Then he heard his name called by the commander and nodded there too.

"I hear and obey."

Turning back to Serra, Deacon grinned as best he could. and thanked her verbally this time before trot jogging towards the front door, swaying in motion with the tram's side to side motions. He then went out the door and across the catwalk, leaning his back against the car next car forward in their trek and aimed the rifle up at the lip of the roof, guarding against anymore of the strange metallic bug things.
 
Claire made a mental note to convince Serra to find the video logs of the passenger trams (Since she was sure Montreal monitered them too.) and retrieve Peke's antics on trying to use Stovaa as a mount. It would be for a couple of good laughs in the bunk rooms.

Her orders came first, though. Hearing that, she silently took a brief moment to look at her weapon and giving a fleeting wish that it didn't suck. But for now it would have to do.

She was silently thrilled to be paired with Deacon. The anthromorphic squadmate was just so interesting to her. It was a shame they didn't have time to chat... maybe later.

Irregardless, she moved in right behind Deacon, keeping her gun forward instead of up, considering they hadn't cleared the rest of the cars yet. (To her knowledge, anyway.)
 
"HUA, Sergeant." Noboru was prepared to cover the ground between the two tram cars he had just been ordered to take rear guard on. He was even aiming at the door to the tram in front of him with his little .45 service pistol. He really wanted to shoot some tin cans on the way to the front car.

Instead of doing so, he raised the barrel of the service pistol towards the cieling, holding it in a ready position, and walked off towards the rear of the tram car, where Method had just gone. Along the way he pulled on his helmet and activated the external speakers.

Having not spent his entire life on a spacecraft in cramped, labyrinthine conditions, Noboru had a much harder time negotiating his way up to the roof of the tram car than Method had. Once he was on the catwalk, the Yamataian had a difficult time fighting off the gale-force winds that battered the area between the two tram cars as he gripped the low rungs on the service ladder. Once he hit the top of the ladder, things only got worse. If it weren't for the fact that he was a Yamataian and therefore had access to his gravity manipulation abilities, which he used to keep himself all but bonded to the rooftop, he would have been thrown off into the tunnel.

"Method!" The Yamataian's voice was just barely loud enough to punch through the winds whipping over the tram car's roof. "Get off the damn roof!" A brief pause, then: "I think there's some new-model adapting Junkers in the command car!"
 
On top of the roof, Method could spot several junkers scurrying about with no apparent purpose or goal in mind. Upon noticing the two, however, as the climbed the roof access ladders, the junker drones paused and stared for a moment, turning to exchange red eye lenses in apparent confusion. Noboru's appearance and voice, unfortunately, did not have the same effect; the junkers immediately began to scuttle towards the two, front limbs rear up as their other sets of legs pattered harshly on the metallic roofing.

---

Peke shrugged at Stovaa's foreshadowing remarks as she traveled along with the large ID-SOL. "Iunno. I sent Goat to check out the problem when the choo-choo started goin' fast-fast," the small Freespacer explained. "He bettah not be slackin' off or something, I tell you what."
 
As the rest of the squad moved forward in the cars ahead, Kokuten stayed behind to cover the rear. He looked over to the backdoor, and worried for a little moment we he did see Noboru or Method coming back just as of yet. Though, when he heard the skittering of Junker feet beginning to increase, his heart began to sink.

"Noboru! Method! Are you alright!? What's happening?" Kokuten yelled out for his comrades, the worried Captain moving closer to the back of the car.
 
"NEW MODEL!" Method shrieked excitedly, standing up as much as she could, though she was still half-bent, on the runaway tram car. She started to run forward again; the rest of the squad still inside the car could hear her heavy boots banging on the roof as she went. She aimed some kicks for the junkers' undersides as they raised their front legs and left themselves vulnerable.
 
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