RP: Cirrus Station [Episode 8] That Sinking Feeling

"Ah..." Kokuten grunted, helping himself stand for a moment, as Swann detained their enemies. The Doctor forced himself to stand straight, despite the pain. The nanospray, which kept him from bleeding too much, held only a bit with his movements. So with about every step, blood seeped from his wound, staining the ablative, and leaving a significant red foot-print on the floor with each step of his right foot. Luckily, the bullet went all the way through, and without hitting an artery, so there wouldn't be any need for surgery. Still, it still pained him immensely.

"A job well done, captain," Swann nodded once as she gave the rest of the room another once over.

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"No no," Kokuten responded, only slightly strained as he disciplined his body to respond properly, propping himself against the wall for a moment. "It was Sergeant Badass's idea to charge with the floor panels, and beyond that, none of it is possible without my squad." The Captain took a second, before pointing off to the rest of the squad, "They rightly deserve the honors more than I."

"Are you going to be alright?"

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"Yes, I will be fine." Kokuten said, pulling off his helmet, to let his head breath for a moment. He offered a slightly pained smile to Swann, "As long as my nano-spray holds, I won't be experiencing anything serious. At best, I will feel weak later on due to blood loss, but finding some sort of medical equipment would be preferable. The Hypolathe only offers a temporary solution such as my leg."

The Captain looked back into the room, towards his own squad, "Is everyone alright?"

The plasma rifle became dislodged with Tweak's harsh blow, clattering loudly on the ground at Bell's feet.

Bell growled in frustration as Tweak suddenly latched onto her back. With her head being forced to tuck forward and her shoulders raised, Bell gritted her teeth and tested Tweak's strength, attempting to bring her shoulders back down. Despite Tweak's formidable abilities, she would find her grip hard-pressed to stay fastened; Bell was undeniably strong for her size, gaining several inches as the Unique Captain pitted her muscle against Tweaks. Although she was slowly gaining, Bell eventually relented... but apparently not out of exhaustion.

Instead, Bell had gained enough headway to grab Tweak's own wrists, locking them where they were. In an instant, Bell leaped upward and brought both of them down harshly against the ground in front of Claire. With Tweak beneath her, Bell's whole weight pressed down with the shock of the fall, working its way well into the shard of shrapnel that Tweak had suffered earlier.

Claire gritted her teeth and inhaled sharply as she felt the blade lodge into the armor's weakpoint. What little protection the undersuit gave did not do much. Her right arm felt a little weak and perhaps a bit numb as the pain shot through the limb. She kept her focus though, and held fast to Bell's arm when she tried to free it. Even if it was going to get her stabbed again.

Then came Tweak, with the Geshrin thanking the diety of her choice that she took the chance Claire was risking herself for. Her own grip on Bell came lose and her gun did as well. Instinctively she reached out for it but quickly switched to her left hand as the motion shot pain up her right arm again. Seemed that she would be learning ambidexterity real quick. Claire scooped up the plasma rifle just as Bell flipped around.

As they hit the floor Claire took the last step forward to basically put herself right on top of the two and aimed the rifle. Downwards. At almost point blank range she fired the gun at Bell's unobstructed left leg. If enough time, the second shot would be for the right. The idea was to get her to stop jumping around everywhere like some kind of neko on catnip and make her fight on their level. (As she pretty much assumed the shots wouldn't tear off her legs like it would to them thanks to her armor, but enough to make it about as bad as Claire's arm or worse.)

The neko grunted as the wind was knocked out of her, but instead of loosening her grip she tightened it as they hit. A dulled pain shot up Tweak's leg. She had kept her grip on Bell, but somehow Bell had grabbed her wrists to keep the neko from avoiding the drop.

The cause of the pain, the shard in her rear, was somewhat smaller than it had been; ever since Tweak had been forced to start healing that area her hemosynthetics had begun breaking the metal down for raw materials as well as to get it out of the wound. But even the pain wasn't enough to make Tweak let go of her captive. There was nothing left to do but hang on.

Well, almost nothing. Blood tendrils slipped out of Tweak's hemosynth ports at her hips and slithered underneath her CSS suit, ready for use if they were needed as a last resort. This fight needed to end...

The Unique plasma weapon lurched upwards only slightly as Claire fired down onto Bell. The bolt of blue heat collided with the lustrous outer armor, taking a short moment to melt through the material. Bell released a short scream of in pain and anger as the wound quickly vanished, the hole left by the weapon leading to her seared flesh filling with a viscous gel which hardened instantly. In the instant at which she was struck, Bell glared up at Claire, her piercing blue eyes wild and enraged.

Bell leg go of Tweak's wrists and pulled her arms forward, the blades at her wrist retracting, while a second set of longer, thinner curved blade shot out from the elbows of the armor. The Unique Captain then brought her arms down, sinking roughly three inches of metal into Tweak's sides around the rib cage. The blades passed through her armor quite easily, Tweak able to sense thousands of small vibrations running through the objects as they sank into her flesh.

At the same instant, Bell tucked in her other leg to her chest and shot it outwards, towards Claire's helmet. The heel of her foot collided with Claire's CSS Suit visor, shattering the area around the point of impact as the sharp point penetrated into her helmet. The tip of Bells stiletto heel stop just missed Claire's right eye, instead sinking barely a centimeter into the flesh of her upper cheek. Luckily, Claire's distance was an inch away from the heel penetrating her cheekbone; instead the sharp point simply 'knocked' on it as Bell's leg reached its distance limit. Bell wasted no time in pulling the leg back again and striking the side of Claire's helmet with a short kick.

While the woman reeled from Bell's retaliation, Bell released a mixture between a laugh and a gasp of pain as she brought her injured leg closer and positioned her left arm from the shoulder down to grab at the thigh compartment, retrieving an explosive disk from its confines. Bell's arm reeled back slightly to throw it, the relatively close proximity of Claire requiring little in the ways of arm strength to make an accurate toss.

HOW?!

Somehow, Bell had broken Tweak's hold even with no leverage and the Freespacer with all the leverage she needed. 

Finding her hands empty and her ribs screaming "Intruder!" at the curved metal being forced between them, Tweak put her palms on Bell's helmet with enough force to compress the helmet into a definite oblong shape and lock Bell's head inside so it would move with the helmet, and clamped her fingers down on it. Then she pushed forward, forcing Bell's chin down to her chest to restrict airflow, and turned the captain's head so she couldn't see where Claire was anymore.

"You will stop now or you will stop in five seconds," Tweak hissed, both team and Kess' channels open in addition to the electronically distorted voice that issued from her external speakers. It sounded like Bell and Nell, voices deepened and speaking simultaneously without the inflection and timing difference that usually accompanied 'collective speaking' vocals. "If you continue to attempt to kill me, I know a couple people who would be happy to avenge me." Tweak eyed the grenade, ready to plant that grenade on Bell if she began to throw it.

Meanwhile the blades sliced past a rib on each side like they were made of soft clay until the hemosynth system began eating away at the blades, even traveling up the metal and dissolving the anchor mechanisms at Bell's elbows until the blades were withdrawn or removed. Then the blood would drip to the floor like blood should.

"Heh...heh heh."

Bell chuckled through clenched teeth, the words a little thin due to Tweak's pressure on her neck. The Unique Captain continued to laugh shortly at Tweak and Claire, as she stared upwards at the woman, the explosive still gripped tightly in her hand. Tweak would have to give it her all, however, simply to contain Bell; the Unique didn't halt her attempts at freeings for a second, her head forcing itself against Tweaks hands. Although Tweak had managed to put the two in a stalemate, it wasn't so easy to maintain. "Sorry, I'm not too merciful when dealing with trespassers," Bell spat out through her weak grin, her head shaking slightly as it continued to free itself. "I don't get paid to be nice."

The explosive disk in Bell's hand suddenly slipped through her fingers as she relaxed them, hitting the ground with a clatter before the foamy gel layer quickly began to expand outside of the Unique's grip. A short, quiet hiss could be heard around Bell's waist, as two compartments on her thighs opened. Out of the compartments spilled more of Bell's explosives, most likely the last of her reserve; seven in all, each of them falling out onto the floor before adhering themselves as well. From down in the crevice between her head and chest, Bell's voice quietly wafted through the air once more amidst her giggles of maniacal delight.

"I might live. I wonder if you will."

The eight explosives then began to quickly blink with small red lights as Bell used her free hands to reach behind her head once more and grab Tweak's wrists again. With the neko's hands on the sides of Bell's helmet, it was much easier for her to get a grip... and she had quite a grip. Tweak could hear the noise of the thin durandium bending and feel an intense pressure as Bell put Tweak's wrists in a literal vice-grip. Just as Tweak had Bell locked away, Bell had Tweak... and all three of the woman had a very dire problem.

Method was clearly growing bored now that the combat in their area was dying down. She checked the Unique's weapon she had salvaged, then realized she had almost no idea how to work it - that could come later, she rationalized. Once she was sure the rest of the nearby squad wasn't watching, she wandered off, following the sounds of combat she had heard and the triangulation of Tweak's last call.

Serra snapped her head to the side. She had heard something from outside the elevator. Turning her eyes back to the administrator, she raised a hand to her lips and hissed at the woman to be quiet.

"I hear people outside again. Ms. Mountreal. Please keep quiet." Serra said as she checked the handgun in her possession to make sure it was loaded, and with a flick of her thumb she took the safety off.

This time Cassefin did have enough sense to listen and heed Serra's warning, immediately hushing up and getting into a position behind the Elysian. The voices quickly turned into several soft footsteps as the source of the quiet noises approached through the thin cloud of dust knocked up by their elevator's landing. Faint beams of light pierced through the cloud, followed by several figures.

They weren't all Uniques... but they seemed to be more uniform than random marauder rabble. There were roughly ten of them, every three or so clad in similar clothing yet separate from the other three. A couple of them had small-caliber handguns, but most were either bare-handed or had improvised clubs made of office furniture. A single Unique led the pack, her visor faceplate glistening slightly in the dim yellow light.

As the dust cleared further, Serra and Cassefin could a small handful of people far behind the group, watching them from a distance. They were middle-aged men, in proper business attire and looking on edge. One of the other individuals of the group of investigators, a man in sparse black body armor and other protective clothing stepped up to the Unique, his weapon beginning to lower.

"Hey, it's the delegates from Cirrus Research Station," the man said suddenly. The rest of the group looked on for a reply, which Cassefin couldn't return immediately, amidst a short time of shock from facing her possible death only moments ago.

"Abso-freaking-lutely fine. What're we gonna do now?"

Stovaa looked around and noted the CSS team members that weren't looking spritely and in great shape. He was about to open a channel to Kokuten before he was so rudely interrupted by Tweak's message.

Tweak said:

"You will stop now or you will stop in five seconds."
"If you continue to attempt to kill me, I know a couple people who would be happy to avenge me."

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The hulking ID-Sol took a few seconds to process the call before opening a channel to Kokuten. "...Not sure what was, but it sounded like trouble. I recommend we try to get to wherever she is up ahead and try to sort it out? Also, we need to ditch these whores in suits. Get them to stick it here with the terrorists and civilians while we go ahead with Nell? Just ideas, sir..."

He picked up his shields and clanged them together loudly, doing little besides drawing attention to himself.

Kokuten nodded happily, barely noticing Method's wanderings by his own distraction. He was glad to see that he was the only one hurt. Well, not glad that he was hurt, but glad that no one else was. Unlike most, he considered the safety of his squad a higher priority than his own. So, not to make himself any more of an individual than he already was, he slipped on his helmet, just in time to catch a message.

"You will stop now or you will stop in five seconds."
"If you continue to attempt to kill me, I know a couple people who would be happy to avenge me."

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Damn it... I was afraid of this. thought Kokuten, his improving mood sunken by the sound of Tweak's voice.

The [Stovaa] took a few seconds to process the call before opening a channel to Kokuten. "...Not sure what that was, but it sounded like trouble. I recommend we try to get to wherever she is up ahead and try to sort it out? Also, we need to ditch these whores in suits. Get them to stick it here with the terrorists and civilians while we go ahead with Nell? Just ideas, sir..."

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"Agreed, though I am unsure if even Nell is safe to trust to such an extent with our plans." responded Kokuten over the opened-channel. Instead of sprinting to action, the Doctor stood there, as if lost in thought. His mind was furiously unraveling something that could convince the Uniques to allow them to advance. Though, ever the honest man, he could not think of something decent enough to coerce these women. So, he decided to tell the truth.

"Captain Swann, forgive any disrespect, but we need to cut this delay short." started Kokuten, a flavorful urgency in his tone, "A portion of my squad has been cut off, and are now under attack. So that we can rescue our own, I would ask that you to defend Purina in our absence." Already, Kokuten was advancing slowly towards the data center in which Claire, Tweak, and now Method were. If Swann wanted to say something, he wouldn't allow it as he spoke quickly. "I wish I could discuss further of a tactical solution, but the situation is grim, time is short, and our friends are in trouble! Squad 101, move out. Now."

The Captain hustled ahead, the hole in his leg bleeding further, and giving him cause to limp as he lead the way.

Tweak said:

"You will stop now or you will stop in five seconds."
"If you continue to attempt to kill me, I know a couple people who would be happy to avenge me."

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Noboru immediately raised his weapon again, aiming down the hallway towards where he assumed Tweak was fighting. The expatriate held this stance for a few seconds as the rest of the squad gathered its wits about them, his eyes steely and peeled, as if he could see the fight from where he was standing. Kokuten eventually gave the move order, which was music to Noboru's ears.

He swapped mags, pulled the charging hammer on his SMP, and moved down the hallway, keeping his weapon raised. Noting that Kokuten was wounded and bleeding, the expatriate offered his shoulder to the Captain. "Better that you stay standing than fall over under your own power, boss," Noboru said over the Squad's COMM, matching pace with the wounded Chiaki.

"Thank you, Noboru, you're a good man." said Kokuten, taking Akio's offered shoulder. He distributed his weight on his fellow soldier, but not in an overbearing way. The Captain, now relieved, could move a little faster, and urged his supportive friend to speed up by increasing his own pace.

"Absolutely not."

Swann nimbly asserted herself in front of Squad 35, taking a firm stance between them and the hall. The other Uniques were occupied with restraining the captured terrorists, but kept a weathered eye on the Unique Captain. Swann's voice, calm but firm, did not sound at all amused with what she had just heard. "I don't know what you all are up to, but the area past here is restricted. I do not know why your companions went ahead without our consent. Your reasons for even being here were questionable to begin with," the woman said behind her reflective visor. "I assume Nell already informed you that all of you aren't even supposed to be on this floor at all. I can also assure you that your friends are in no danger, as we have already secured the area ahead and my fellow captain is making sure it remains safe," Swann explained, peacefully standing in their way at every attempt to pass her.

"Even if she mistook them for hostiles, which she should given the circumstances," she said in caution. "She would have called it in to us, and we would have informed on the contrary. So, you will stay here, with your Administrator, while I see to their return."

A private channel opened between Noboru and Kokuten. "Give me just a second, boss, and I'll handle this." The expatriate removed Kokuten's arm from his shoulder, lowered his gun, and moved towards bell.

Another private COMM frequency opened, this time to Stovaa. "Get my back, and be ready to move. This could get ugly." When he finished, Noboru's COMM flicked off. He stood, polarized visor to polarized visor, with Swann. The air crackled with silent tension as the Yamataian stared her down, a stony glare locked with that Unique visor.

Then - WHAM! There was a crack of Cirrus Station polymers on Vinross Yu-Cranker alloys as Noboru's neck lashed out and propelled his forehead into Swann's faceplate. He opened up his SquadCOMM and shouted, "RUN!" as loudly as he could, then booked for the hallway.

Kokuten sighed deeply, being stopped by Swann. How silly, how did the Doctor expect to get away from a healthy Unique when he couldn't even walk right? Well, the Chiaki would ha--

"Give me just a second, boss, and I'll handle this."

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Noboru had released the Captain and was now taking the situation in his own hands! Well, this must've meant he had something rather ingenious, yes? Kokuten hoped so, this charade was getting difficult to uphold.

Then - WHAM! There was a crack of Cirrus Station polymers on Vinross Yu-Cranker alloys as Noboru's neck lashed out and propelled his forehead into Swann's faceplate. He opened up his SquadCOMM and shouted, "RUN!" as loudly as he could, then booked for the hallway.

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"What!?" shouted Kokuten incredulously. Though before he could question anything, Noboru had already begun to run. This left the Captain behind by a great deal. In fact, the moment he tried to take running step forward, he put too much pressure on his leg, causing the wound to open again and blinding pain to shoot up into his body.

"ARGH!" yelled the Captain, falling down to the floor with a harsh thud.

A choked sound welled up from Noboru's throat, half unintelligible rage and half trying to shout "FUCK" at the top of his lungs. He heard Kokuten hit the ground with a heavy thud as his leg gave on him, then give a pained shout. The expatriate stopped mid-step, realizing that his plan was a really fucking stupid idea at that very moment. But there wasn't really much he could do to stop it now, he could only go with it.

When his opposite foot made contact with the hallway floor, the Yamataian pivoted in a razor-sharp about face, then bent and grabbed Kokuten's forearm. He lifted the Captain up, first by pulling on his arm, then by lifting him from the shoulders, and lifted him up in a fireman's carry. Now laden with the extra wait of his crippled squad leader, Noboru ran off back down the hallway, again attempting to put as much distance as possible between himself and the Unique team.

Not wanting to wait and see what happened next, Blake took it upon himself to bolt down the hall away from the conflict; in the direction of the trouble. He switched to the fresh mag on the .45 as he jetted through the corridor in the direction of the data center. He just hoped he could outrun Uniques and, if he did, that he could find the server room.

Swann stumbled back a bit upon Noboru's headstrong attack, but was quick to stand back up and point her weapon forward as he and a couple of the others began to run past her. "Halt!" Swann called out as she watched their wounded captain stumbled while being supported by the one who had just butted heads with her. As a result of his extra load, Noboru was nowhere near quick enough to outrun or dodge Swann's retaliatory shot of her plasma rifle. The bolt hit home against the back of Noboru's right calf, searing through the CSS suit before coming into contact with Noboru's flesh. The CSS suit's black undersuit instantly sealed the hole, however the wound from the blast was beyond the suits capability to heal. Noboru would quickly find himself in the position of help that Kokuten had required.

Swann fired another handful of warning shots into the ceiling above Noboru, once more shouting "I said halt!" The other Uniques, Nell included, immediately came out into the hall. One of the Uniques grabbed a hold of Administrator Purina Popjoy, who was far too surprised by what happened to even begin attempting a getaway. Nell, her eyes open in wild confusion, kept her gun up and at the ready but did not point it at anyone in particular.