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RP: Cirrus Station [Episode 8] That Sinking Feeling

Nell smiled in conjunction with Kokuten's voice of observation, her silvery-toned eyes lighting up as she whispered her triumphant answer. "Yes!"

The two Uniques nearest to the door took up their guns and assumed quick firing positions, but upon noticing Nell's unique attire (both literally and figuratively) they looked at each other, looked at the other two Uniques on the opposite side of the doorway and nodded once. It took a moment to realize it, but they must have been conversing with one another, their eyes hidden behind their reflective face plates, darkened and illuminated in the low-light setting. Nell must have realized it as well, as her shoulders tensed up and her relief turned into instant professionalism. "What's tha sitch?" Nell asked, holding her weapon aloft as another stream of automatic gunfire poured in from the open doorway, as if to remind the Uniques where they were.

"Sorry Nell," the Unique closest to the silver-haired woman spoke through her security suits audio speakers, tapping her helmet in responce. "Didn't realize you lost yours. Room's got a couple of bodies holed up behind the front desk. Sounds like they have a hostage, too. We got them pinned down pretty good, just waiting until they make a mistake before we advance. Are they with you?"

The Unique motioned down the hall. Some of the employees Nell had been escorting had began to follow her forward, betraying Squad 35's position. Passing without the Uniques noticing would have be quite a feat on its own, given the relatively small width of the hallway... but now would be seemingly impossible. Nell looked back quickly and nodded once. "Yeah. They helped me ice a group ah 'vem over in assembly. Got a couple civs in tow," Nell motioned for them to approach over slowly. A couple of the civilians took her advice, but kept a safe distance from the door.

The other Uniques looked at each other again, conversing silently between the four of them for a short moment. "You sure they are good?" The Unique asked again. Nell nodded once more. "Yeah, I vouch for 'em," the short, spunky lady added with her nod. The Unique looked over the group of those she could see and gave Nell a return nod. "Alright. You must've not caught the broadcast earlier; all civilian, guest and escorts not in designated areas are to be treated as hostiles. Platinum Sec suspects an inside job," the masked woman explained, her emotionless face and flat tone painting the words a bit darker than they normally would have been. "But if they assisted you, they should be fine."
 
Kokuten started to sweat inside his helmet. It appeared the Squad was getting bogged down even further by the affairs and regulations of the Uniques. Though, as far deep as they seemed to get bogged, he tried to keep a positive outlook. If they hadn't of assisted Nell earlier, they might've had to meet these four in force, but instead they've approached with subtle and strongly set faux image to throw them all off until they could work up a better idea. Though, that was the problem, what would be a better idea? Was this plan doomed from the start? No, fate cheated them a lot, but it wasn't nice enough to stop dragging them through the mud.

The doctor started to shake for a second, as he wracked his brain on what to do. The more he searched mind deeply, the more he began to miss just being a Medic. After a few seconds of silence, Kokuten decided to speak.

"Well... It seems we're stuck. For now." radioed Kokuten, feeling the ticking-time limit wistfully raise the hairs on the back of his head, one follicle at a time. "We'll need to play this ear, until we can sneak Kess off."

At the point, Kokuten stepped forward, and mentally shoved his stress in a corner to be dealt with later. He offered his genuine smile again, as he regarded the other Uniques with a nod and a respectful, stance of attention.

"We are Squad 101 of the Cirrus Station Security, we will offer whatever minimal support we have. Though, we lack the proper firepower and resources to assist in full capacity." greeted and explained Kokuten, trying to be as friendly as possible.
 
Noboru stepped up behind the Sergeant, holding the 10mm SMP in a loose one-handed grip as he looked towards the Uniques holding the hallway down. Inwardly he scowled a bit. Given the chance, Kokuten and the Squad would have had those terrorists repelled and killed dead within thirty seconds of arrival on the scene. And the Uniques were supposed to be the efficient ones? The expatriate had to let loose a tiny chuckle, masked by the closed COMM in his helmet.

The Yamataian then patched into Kokuten's channel and spoke, following the Sergeant's statement with an infinitely more simple one of his own: "Meanin' our guns ain't worth two tin shits, coz we had ta steal 'em off the fuggin' terrorists in tha room we cleared just a second ago. So if ya got some spare firepower, anythin' ya can provide'd be a' great help ta us."
 
"Sorry, we're not hiring," the Unique said almost immediately at Kokuten's offer, not a single ounce of hesitation present in her tone. "...what were they even doing out of their designated area, Nell? You reported them in the elevator earlier, and you say you saw them in assembly? Did they tell you why they were there?" Nell looked back at the squad, her face unsure for a moment. "Err... I think they did..."

Another short burst of automatic fire rang out, accompanied by a short scream of terror from inside the room. The voice was female, most likely the lone hostage that the Uniques had been talking about earlier. It was short, shrill and... vaguely familiar. Those with particularly good sense of hearing and impeccable memory would instantly recognize the voice and associate it with the only member of their little venture that had remained unaccounted for; Miss Purina Popjoy.
 
Serra turned her gaze to the partly open door, when she heard the sounds of multiple footsteps and voices. Looking down at the .45 in her hand, she looked back up to the door.

"Ms Montreal, I hear people outside the elevator door." She said, leaning against the wall of the elevator next to the doors, but not on the doors themselves.
 
"That sounded like Popjoy..." radioed Kokuten, the shrill scream ringing on familiar with his mind. Though, a random scream was hardly definitive evidence, but he had a sure feeling. Identification like this came a little natural after having to match up the screams of target soldiers on the battlefield. It also helped that not many people had a voice like Purina's.

"It seems this has become our business." asserted Kokuten, nodding slightly in the Uniques direction. He dropped the nicety in his tone and made it more professional, his stature more stiff. "We have reason to believe that one of our administrators may be the hostage. Seeing as how this is our M.O., we will have to intervene to ensure the safety of our personnel."

After this is over, I will be sure to note this situation to the administrator next time she sends one of our own off alone. thought Kokuten, remembering how Cassefin had denied his request to send at least one or two of the squad with Purina when she was called off.
 
The sound byte of the scream was broken down by Tweak's TacOp system and compared with memories from the start of the mission.

"It is her," Tweak murmured over the team comm. "Kess, is there a second route into that room?" she asked, this time aloud. "We could try a flanking maneuver or diversion. Or will completing the objective aid in saving Miss Popjoy?" The neko's voice trailed off, both from the options that were buzzing through her mind and a feeling of being caught between an oncoming missile and an armor plate. Why haven't they killed her yet? she wondered. Have they made demands? Are they trying to kidnap her?

She did not envy the medic his job. Nope. Not at all.
 
Stovaa spoke up, visible over the civilians due to being hella big.

"Sgt Badass, in charge of holyshitawesome shenanigans. We're paid to protect Cirrus Station employees, and since one of them was unnaccounted for in this extremely hostile situation, we're duty bound to go anywhere we need to go. Sorry if we get bootprints on your nice clean floors, but if you were on our station, you'd do the same, right?"

He tapped the walls testingly with his crowbar, his new toy of choice, and a plan formed. "...these panels bulletproof?"
 
Method wandered up behind Noboru and tapped lightly on his helmet with the big, silvery gun she had scavenged from the dead Unique. "I found a thing. You can't have it, but I thought you might like to know!"
 
A moment of silence from Noboru's helmet as the expatriate Yamataian considered what had just been said by Stovaa. This Sergeant Badass actually sounded a lot like Squad 35's own massive ID-Sol, which was kind of good. Every squad needed one testosterone-charged, hulking - forgive the pun - badass to do all the loud-mouthing when the comic relief guy failed to make any impact. So Noboru shrugged.

"If you wanna find out," The Yamataian said over his squad's COMM frequency, "fire a burst from the 10mm at one of the plates. And if I'm thinking what you're thinking, you're gonna need a much bigger plate to cover all that girth."

Then Method approached him from the rear and tapped him on the head. She held up the USR - Noboru's clever classification for the Unique Standard-issue Rifle - and said something in her perky, lightspeed way. Ignoring that he'd just been tapped in the brainpan with a potentially lethal weapon, Noboru turned around and looked at Method. His helmet was down and the face-shield was polarized, but his body language said that Noboru was probably fostering a big old scowl. "Method," he said calmly, "If you have the rifle but you're not going to let me use it, why would you tell me that you have it in the first place?" He raised one palm to the front of his visor and smacked the heel of his palm into what would have been his forehead before turning around and facing the rest of the squad.
 
Frustrated with trying to figure out a way to make the elevator move to a higher floor, Cassefin growled in gruff annoyance upon hearing Serra's words. "What?!" Cassefin practically yelled at the Elysian, initially unaware of what her warning meant. There came a short shout from the doorway, some faint beams of light from flashlights and gruff voices echoing into the elevator as Serra's warning suddenly become more clear. A face appeared in the small nook on the floor above them, looking quite angry. "HEY! THERE'S SOME IN HERE!"

Cassefin's eyes shot open in alarm and her face turned into a grimace as she yelped in surprise. The Head Administrator placed her back against the wall, staring wide-eyed at Serra. Out of either instinct or panic, the red-haired scientist felt around for the exposed panel of conduits she had previously been working on and, in the heat of the moment, gave a handful of miscellaneous wires a yank. A few sparks, dimming light strips and some worrisome creaking from above the trapped duo later, the elevator jerked down. Cassefin's eyes narrowed for a bit as she looked at the fistful of wires in her hand, then back to Serra, and then to the eco-terrorist who looked just as surprised as she was.

A split second later, the elevator and its two passengers began to quickly plummet.

---

"Not from what I can tell from my layouts," Kess replied to Tweak's inquiry. "There are ventilation systems of course, but they are too small. From what I can tell, the only entrance is the one in front of us. I can't be all that certain if getting to that computer sever will help her out either," Kess sighed audibly. "These setbacks are wasting our time, but it can't be helped; none of us expected Administrator Popjoy's inclusion in this. I'm not sure whether to assist her or progress... both seem to be important. Perhaps you should split into two teams?"

The Uniques looked at each other as Stovaa's asked a question about the integrity of the very walls around them. "Uh. Well. They are bulletproof I suppose," the Unique answered thoughtfully. They had been relying on the walls to cover them from their enemies gunfire, after all. By the time the Unique glanced back at Stovaa, he was brandishing a menacing crowbar. "The walls are also property of Vinross Yu-Cranker Materials, sir," the Unique said in a reprimanding tone, apparently not approving of his proposed methods.
 
Tweak didn't say anything. She just twitched. First objective was of key importance...but Popjoy was of great importance also. She was almost sure she could handle taking Kess to the computer room, how difficult could that be? The most difficult part so far was all the distractions they were running into.

But for now she didn't move. She couldn't, not without getting the team in trouble with the Uniques and without a confirming order to do so from Kokuten...

"Sir, should I try to slip away if you all can hold their attention?" Tweak half-whispered over a direct channel to the team leader. "Maybe they haven't gotten a count on us yet...and they do seem distracted."
 
Yes... Kokuten responded to Tweak in deep thought for a moment, taking in these new prospects and Stovaa's brilliant idea. He took a few seconds to respond, Yes, when we make our assault, I want you to keep the rear, and advance toward our objective as quickly as you can. For now, let's see about getting past this current folly.

The Captain clapped both his hands together loudly.

"Well! Sergeant Badass!" Kokuten said aloud, putting a grizzly effect on the name. He turned to Stovaa, a hand his helmeted chin, and bit of surprise lining his voice, "Once again, your strategic and tactical intelligence astounds and awes! By all means, proceed with removing these panels by any regular Badass method."

The Cirrus Captain turned his head slightly towards the Uniques.

"I'm sure that our allies here of the Vinross Yu-Cranker Corporation would be absolutely thrilled in allowing us to cover for their folly of losing one of our administrators when we trusted them enough to take care of her!" continued Kokuten with an upbeat, over-the-top tone, in what seemed to be a little out-of-character for him. Though, it was his cover, and he was sure Onasi Delarte would be more disapproving of their performance than he was or... Perhaps he was just using this guise to let off some personal opinions. At any rate, he felt somewhat better after saying that out loud.
 
Noboru turned away from Method and turned the dull, unremarkable faceplate of the CSS Suit's helmet towards the Unique. He flicked his COMM channel over to the public frequency and scowled behind the faceplate. "D'you think we're gonna stop pryin' plates offa th' walls 'coz they belong t'yer boss?" The expatriate snapped. "Because it don't look like that t'me."

To add to his point, Noboru started searching the walls for a seam between the plates that he might be able to hammer on with the stock of his SMP, maybe denting it enough to get a hand through and pry the plate off.
 
"Aye, sir."

Having kept her distance from the Uniques, and once everyone else arrived and started milling around, Tweak had worked her way to the fringe of the crowd as was her habit, so the difficult part of that was over. So now all she had to do was watch for an opening.
 
Claire was doing everything possible to remain inconspicuous. Partly because she planned on moving along with her little break-off team, and partly because she did not want to interact with any unique, even ones supposedly on her side. To that end, she noticed Tweak trying to stay on the edges. She was nowhere near as nimble as the spacer, but so long as she made sure not to make too much noise, she could perhaps slip away with her if given an opportunity. She also toggled her radio to only receive for the moment. The thoughts running through her head at this moment were very familiar and she didn't particularly care for the rest of her squad to hear what she had to say.
 
The Unique the squad had been speaking to took a step towards Noboru, her shoulders raised as she visibly tensed up. "You do what I tell you to do, Chuckles," the Unique placed her free hand onto Noboru's chest and gave him a hefty shove backwards as she reprimanded him in a particularly demeaning voice. "Because we're in charge here."

It was hard to tell where the other Uniques aside from Nell were looking, their faceless visors obscuring the squad's vision. Nell herself was looking a little worried at the exchange, but for the moment remained silent. The other three Uniques were all facing the confrontation that was brewing in front of them, also choosing not to act for the moment.
 
Tweak's tactical system shaded in the standard human field-of-view ranges in the neko's vision for each Unique. Except for Claire trailing her, Tweak was nearly unnoticeable as the shortest CSS slowly slipped around everyone trying to avoid line-of-sight.

They probably noticed an arm here, a space there where people would be making room but heads hid who it was. And how successful Claire was in her own movements was dependent on how focused she appeared and how quickly she moved around. Tweak had already noticed, but that was only because she was made for noticing things like movement in a combat situation.

After avoiding all projected lines-of-sight (which took into account peripheral vision) for at least thirty seconds, Tweak frowned. The hallway was still lit, however dim that light was. Her suit had _lights_ on it for crying out loud.

Hmm...I hope she goes for this...she might even enjoy it.

"Claire, I need a favor," Tweak whispered over a private channel. "I need a diversion. Ask someone for help, start a fight, something so I can get down the hall. Five seconds of all eyes on something other than the hallway. Then we can get to saving Miss Popjoy."
 
Stovaa jammed his crowbar behind a panel and started prying it off the wall. His muscles flexed, visible through his tighter-than-usual suit, the panel popping free with ease. He sized it up, deciding his plan would require another of the panels. To one side, he heard the Unique playing tough with one of his squadmates.

"Popjoy is our priority, not heeding you. If she dies, it's on your head. And trust me, you don't want the death of one of the brightest minds in this structure on your conscience. Or on your resume" he grunted, bending the panel slightly to fit his needs.

"If you want to play badass and bow someone to play by your rules, try me. If not, you can assist us or sit down."

He started prying the next panel off the wall, praying it had the same cable hooks on the back as the first did, as they would probably make good handles.
 
"Excellent point, Sergeant Badass." Kokuten concurred as he stepped up to the wall, diving the fingers his right hand under one the panels loosened by Stovaa's panel-removing escapade. Due to his own size, he'd likely only need one panel to work as as makeshift cover as they advanced behind the male behemoth. "Besides! It's not like we're going to keep them. We just need them a few moments for our own daring antics."

Using his elbow as a base, he locked his fingers, and diverted power to the elbow of his arm, using it's position to lift the panel up. He did this on the other side, and few other points where the panel seemed stuck on, until it popped off the wall.
 
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