RP: 188604 [Skeleton Ensemble] Program 2; Shattered Stones

Viridian Facility; In Front Of The Laser Grid

Ziggy shook her head. "I need cover. I don't suppose anyone has a smoke grenade? Flashbangs, even?" She walked backward, away from the hole and the laser grid. With her rifle and skills, there was no advantage to staying in close quarters. "What I really need is a sniping position. I'm no acrobat."

Viridian Facility; In Front Of The Laser Grid

Gemini considered tapping into the laser grid and disabling it. The automata guy had let her go, and he seemed to know his way around. He was even built for this environment. She was now sure he belonged here. These Array guys were assholes, and she did need the data. The problem was the intruders. They might appreciate her help, or they might just kill her. They certainly hadn't taken the time to try diplomacy so far. She decided to go with the devil she was sort of acquainted with.

"We can see three, at least. Heavily armed. Some drones floating around too. The turret isn't even fit for scrap metal now." Gemini whispered just loud enough so that both of her new companions could hear. "We think they're going to come through any second now. We're not built for this, guys. No respawns or save points." She muttered as she climbed the ladder.

When she reached the top she sent Ziggy and Hollowpoint the last known location of the three invaders and where she thought they might be now. "I can't guarantee that's accurate, but it's the best I can do with that camera out of place." She said with a shrug and knelt down, trying to find some cover.

This ship isn't the only thing with holes in it...

"A lot's not adding up here guys," Six-Three said over the ship's polysentience. "I know we're here as hired help, but I think we're out of our depth a bit, and this person seems a tad intent on pushing us forward. Plus with Phase not with us, it'll be hard to get past the defense grid." He looked up at their shady chaperone, "I've got an idea that might help clear this up, follow my lead Kiver." Speaking to their Hollowpoint he said, "I'm sorry, but I don't think I got your full name. I'm Genesculptor 83-5262-8271, and you are?"

In Front Of The Laser Grid

The large form of Hollowpoint actually retreated alongside Ziggy, albeit reluctantly. Strangely, it seemed to be the new information from Gemini that did it. Back around the corner and in cover once more, they offered up the mindware cable to re-establish a direct interface.

"I don't know what is going on, but there weren't that many before... Sorry, but even if I could jump to the next floor by myself, knocking out a big enough hole will just let the enemy know we are coming..." The text actually went back to fix it's spelling. Their cyborg companion was erratic, but evidently still trying to put on a brave face. "Maybe I can shoot through the floor directly at them, but... I need better targeting information. The first shot will count the most. Can your technicolour friend here do that, do you think, Ziggy?..."

Floor Above

"Antibody Hollowpoint Five Seven 5749-2815." The masked figure answered Six Three immediately without delay, even looking a little agitated at the question. "Is this really the time to be asking that kind of thing? That crazy automata could be preparing to shoot us right through the floor or anything!"

No public data on the poly for PH-417b's personnel. The viridians were apparently so paranoid about being hacked that they didn't even let that out. Jack was listening in on the conversation, however, and covertly did a little digging of his own. Wasn't like the tiny crab junker was a combat-ready model anyways...

A few seconds later, and a random personnel file was suddenly ported directly into Six-Three's minds eye. Hollowpoint was a real person, serial number and all, at least in YE30. A fighter pilot for the independent worlds league before their ship was smashed to pieces, leaving them horrifically maimed and clinging to life. There wasn't much of a mention what happened next, probably because the carrier was destroyed just hours after the last medical report was filed.

"So, here we have a real conundrum..." Jack-o-lantern gave the chemist a knowing glance, communicating purely to him and Kiver. "If... some mercenary I hired tried to pull my helmet off, by jove, I believe I'd give him a right seeing too..."

Up to the Hole

"Better targeting information," Ziggy mused. "Work on that if you can, Gemini. I'll try to improvise." Patting her laser rifle, she sent back to Hollowpoint just before disconnecting, "I wasn't joking about the name. I'll stick 'Witness' up there in pulse mode, and take some wild shots. I can't send you the footage, but I'll shout and point all you like." She ran back up to the hole in the floor, paused briefly, and bounded several feet straight up, grabbing hold of the jagged, red-hot edge of the hole with her less expensive (and less temperature-sensitive) hand.

Her left hand, gripping the rifle, pointed it straight up at full extension and held down the trigger... though during the movement, even before it began firing, it detached with a pop, the cable spooling out just a few inches, and she flailed it around a full 720 degrees, sending a score of pulse blasts in all directions but down, each one bursting the air as it struck something, scattering debris, or in the case of a near or direct hit, even bowling someone off their feet!

Upper Level

"Could you remove your helm-" was all Six-Three could manage before a hand popped up the hole that they created and began to fire wildly with their rifle. Given the random nature of the directions and the firing, the helpless scientist could only dance around hoping to avoid the fire, while angrily yelling curses and hanging on to Kiver. "$&% %&*#$!! Maker @#*%$ you!!! Entropy preserve me! #$#@% no good pile of radiation waste!! @#%& organic %$$#!!" Thankfully his mouth piece censored the more unkindly words that he shouted at the hole long after the shooting stopped.

Upper Level

Knowing that their body was merely that of a drone, and being unaware that the shots were actually non-lethal, Jack did what seemed natural and charged directly at the flailing rifle. Only having split seconds to work with, it apparently seemed the only way to save Six-Three and Kiver's lives. The tiny starlight cell encased within the pocket-junker reacted by spectacularly loosing containment, exploding in a violent flash of searing white light and orange-hot flecks of shrapnel.

Due to the fact this all happened within mere feet of Hollowpoint, through, seemed awfully coincidental... The blast was perfectly spaced not to injure the guide, but did knock them backwards, causing them to raise a hand up against the burnt plastic sheeting of their outer visor. It was no longer glossy, but opaque. Unable to see clearly, they just backed off behind the others, crawling their hands and knees.

-"Six-Three, Spacecase, are you okay?"- Jack's now disembodied voice rung through Genesculptor and Kiver's ears. -"It looks to me like Hollowpoint is having some mighty nuisance with their helmet. One would suspect they'd darling appreciate your help with it."-

Lower Level

Ziggy swung back down and sprinted away from the hole, cradling her rifle (and her detached hand, still holding it) in the scorched palm of her right hand. She sent the photos from her camera to Gemini before she could process them herself, though it was enough to know for now that she'd inflicted no direct hits. For Hollowpoint, she sorted out the least empty photographs, though words would have to suffice.

"Bogies at quarter to eleven o'clock, yours! They range thirty to thirty-two meters from you, absolute distance." In this case, the picture to words value ratio was surprisingly close to 1:1... at least so long as the details were unimportant. True to her word, she shouted, though it took her a couple more seconds to reattach her hand, and recover the full ability to point toward what her gun camera had seen.

Upper Level

The Genesculptor turned his face as the flash of light exploded from the little crab. A little heartbroken that Jack had to sacrifice a crab for their safety, Six-Three had enough of this nonsense. "Yeah, I think we're fine. Kiver, I'm going to set you down nice and easy. I'm going to need the hands to 'help' with Hollowpoint's mask." Slowly lowering her to the ground, he got his hands free and looked towards Hollowpoint. Keying into the ship's polysentience, he downloaded a quick how-to of doffing a voidsuit for Hollowpoint's and quietly made his way over to where their masked guide was helpless crawling around the floor. Following the instructions quickly, Six Three removed the helmet of the person that had introduced themselves as Hollowpoint to the crew of Skeleton Ensemble.

Lower Level

Hollowpoint's cumbersome vice-like hands didn't have the ability to give a thumbs up, but the appreciated nod they gave seemed to take what Ziggy said in stride. In particular, it also seemed to trouble them that the woman mentioned there being several enemies, but the lack of ability to speak again made their reasoning obscure.

The plan they rapidly came up with to solve this situation, however... Not so obscure.

Shoulder-mounted laser cannon aimed upwards at the basic steel ceiling panels, and let loose a bright red torrent which scorched through them easily. They were not aiming at an exact point, but instead bisecting the entire width of the corridor, and then working their way around the enemies supposed location.

Very soon, an entire slab of the floor above was likely going to come crashing down in front of them!

Upper Level

There was something a little strange about the helmet's latch as Six-Three attempted to manipulate it. The polysentience data noted the release being on the left, but it was mirrored on the right here. The entire suit was mirrored, as if copied from someone's POV. In the mean time, Hollowpoint was groggily righting themselves, not quite knocked out, but momentarily overstimulated and confused.

The occupant within had an odd mix of features. Androgynous with high cheekbones and sharp eyes, pale skinned and bearing a short black mohawk. No clear signs of being a Nekovalkyrja, but then again, they had a stark absence of a Nepleslian brow or Freespacer jawline too. It was like somebody had crafted the perfect nobody.

Suddenly coming to their senses once more, they thanked Genesculptor for the intrusion by offering a thunderous punch to the metallic side of his face. It was like being clubbed with a mallet, disproportionately strong compared to the lithe being it was coming from. Probably best not to think about what would have happened if they had aimed left instead. Before the spacer scientist even had time to react, the person performed a lightning fast recoil jump backwards, followed by a springing kick to the stomach, and then back out of reach again, difficult to even follow by eye. All the while, Kiver was kept out of line of sight, and thus line of fire... Pathless Journey martial arts, like those competitions they held on the poly? The spacer-esk use of inertia and vectors... It just had to be...

Another strike wound up, moving for a spinning kick. Left side. Then- Unexpected stumbling.

A blinding flash from behind Kiver's back. A crimson line was drilling through the panels, heating the air to uncomfortable levels, and cutting off their escape route in the process. Within no time at all, the weapon began arcing around the left side of the group in one long continuous beam, sawing through the common steel floor panels with ease. The intense groaning of metal and shuddering vibrations said gravity was not going to support it much longer.

The now-unfriendly guide just looked to the still locked bulkheads behind them, and then back to the only escape route that remained; Right through Six-Three and Kiver...

Kiver used to be an adventurer:

Throughout all the commotion happening, Kiver had a rather unfortunate reaction to it all: That of pained little whimpering. Through all the jumping around and explosions, she had still been shot in the knee. She was only really faintly aware of her boot filling up with blood from a poorly tended wound, and being jostled about. Something big, and lasers from all the floors! Lasers everywhere!

She wished she was back in her cockpit. Your knees weren't at risk in a cockpit. And things made sense, and you just had to get from place A to place B. None of this exotic butters business. They never did confirm the thing with the guy knowing about neppie food and talking about it like that, but... Wait, hollowpunt guy was punching her walking wheelchair. Confirmed! The bad guy was revealed at last!

Woozily, Kiver raised her gyro .500 trying to get a shot. This was all rather confusing, and everything hurt, but hey. The beauty of this sort of fighting was that it was all pre-programmed. You didn't need to be fully conscious to take the shot... Of course you did need a clear shot... A little while of failing to move about before Kiver dropped her gun. Something else exploded, big shock there. Everything was exploding these days. Kiver had gotten used to it! Hah! Take that universe!

Through all the basking in her ability to roll with the circumstances, and Kiver only barely noticed that Emptytip was running past her! He was the bad guy! There was a clattering of fire from her revolver as she aimed a series of shots at his back, and groggily she opened her mouth to try and put her two cents in.

"Aaat laaaaast..." She said, her voice croaking slightly with the pain, "We know which side your toast is buttered on..."

Lower Level

Gemini tried not to lose her shit when the gunshots started. She wasn't supposed to be involved in any fighting. This mission had been insane from the beginning. It was nowhere near as easy as she had believed. The hacker she had been confused with was probably responsible. Crouched behind some oddly shaped metal thing that seemed to serve no function, she tried to figure out a way to see what was happening up there. When the answer suddenly hit her she felt like an idiot.

"Saga, we are acting like a bunch of noobs! The drones!" She exclaimed excitedly. Gemini traced the signal that seemed to be controlling the movements of the drones and receiving their optical data. Once she had found the source she spoofed the signature of the controlling entity, attempting to trick the drone into allowing her to change its code. If that succeeded, she would reprogram the drone to send information directly to her instead. "We should have eyes up there any second now.." She muttered, barely audible.

Lower Level

Ziggy stayed behind (her version of) Hollowpoint. Warnings given, she made her weapon ready in case of attack from any falling enemies. While the cutting went on, she shared a bit more of the details with Hollowpoint. "At least two organics; armed, suited, not soldiers. One wounded and... using pistol?" That wasn't how she intended to end the sentence, but she'd been distracted by listening.

Six Three managed to record the figure's face with his mechanical eye before the crunching of metal reverberated through his skull and knocked the mechanical pieces therein around. Mindware still intact, and the polysentience to Skeleton Ensemble was still established, but his eye was now only showed a haze of flickering static with occasional clear view. The poor geneticist didn't have any fighting experience at all, so there was no reflexes that followed suit as he took the springing kick to his rib-cage the had been reinforced by the belt for his third arm.

Knocking the wind out of him, and landing the Genesculptor on his back, Six Three remained dazed and confused for a few seconds. His mind still reeling from the events that just unfolded, and his mechanical brain trying to signal to all of the damage. He was a scientist, not a fighter! Why did they agree to do something so hazardous. He's going to have a serious talk about looking for jobs with Jack after this.

The flash of light, melting of metal, and the floor threatening to give way soon, gave urgency to the situation as Six Three gathered his senses. Finding it difficult to sit up, he cradled the now dent in ribbrace as is resisted his movements. Seeing the !Hollowpoint trying to run past them, Six Three could only try to reach up and grasp at the figure as it went by. His own mechanical arms offering more strength than they would seem to hold the person should he get capture them.

The events that proceeded were a cataclysm of light and noise for all concerned. The brown-voidsuited stranger who guided Kiver and Six-Three inside now moved like an unnatural blur, pivoting past the genesculptor and the stray cutting laser with immortal ease. The muggy pilot's rapid hail of bullets didn't need to be so delicate and accurate however, ricocheting and exploding around the corridor as they failed to gain the speed necessary for the rocket-pistol's unique ammo to detonate at such short range. At least one seemed to strike the enemy's lunging back at an angle, but only tore out a chunk of wires and burnt pseudo-organic matter...

Just seconds passed, and somewhere in that mess, Genesculptor's machine reflexes caught up, blindly grasping onto some kind of fabric, possibly a tear of the voidsuit's pant leg...

A few more seconds. Light bars exploded. Severed power lines crackled and flashed. The floor didn't wait for the laser to make it all the way around, instead collapsing sideways with a terrible rolling screech. Bending and buckling, the world seemed to turn sideways as the far end slammed down completely onto the floor below, hitting at such an angle that it was now as if some giant improvised metal skateboard ramp joined the two floors together.

The stranger, Kiver and Genesculptor had somehow ended up in a ragged cluster upon the very lip of the floor above, buffed by the expanding gases of heat-sheared metal, and lit only by the intermittent strobe of the one singular light bulb which was still clinging to life. Pale stranger was righting themselves, still displaying that cold, expressionless, unstoppable force of will.

A new rumbling. Some great chrome monster was skidding straight forwards along the floor below, shedding it's laser cannon and dual missile pods along the way. A three-eyed head with metal antlers. Must have been seven foot tall. Rapidly getting lighter and faster as it shed more and more random equipment and tubing. Needed those long, awkward metal claws to dig into the floor and stop itself, rapidly changing direction for the vast metal ramp now before it. Twin corkscrew drives on the legs now drove it forward like a slingshot from a black hole, gouging out long ripples of metal from the floor as it powered ahead and thundered up the wave of metal at an oblique angle.

Still barely gained the speed to make it up to the next floor, slamming a massive hoof down in between Kiver and Genesculptor hard enough to bend the paneling even worse.

The pale stranger rolled back, and darted their slung hypolathe towards the furious chrome automata. Barrel was smashed at the instant of pulling the trigger, rending both the weapon and the monster's right arm to corrosive shimmering dust. It responded with a headbutt so strong it bounced the voitsuited man off the floor and sent him tumbling.

One fluid motion followed. The automata grabbed the pale thing with it's remaining arm. The enemy grabbed them back, wrapping their legs around the offending limb. The automata turned the movement into a spin and then intentionally ejected their own arm into the floor, a seismic rocket slam, which all but shattered the skeleton's version of hollowpoint into their consistent black tubing, plus a smattering of yellow-white unorganic mess.

A pause. The chrome defender of this station was now themselves crouching, half-broken, ruined from the effort.

The remains of the enemy crackled and caught fire, now simply a bonfire to relight the hellish corridor into a new shade of orange.

It was over.

Kiver... Had. No. Idea. What the heck was going on.

She'd shot at what's his name, now giant robots were doing things. Everything was hazy and her vision was starting to tunnel. Lightheaded was probably the word. Slightly giddy, even. Shaky hands dropped her gun to the deck, as she leaned her head back. Helmet hitting something with a clunk. She was BAD at this. The part with the crane was awesome, but all she could think was how bad at this mercenary stuff she was. And that was fine, she was a Spacecase not a warmonger.

"Ah'm ded. Dummai me..." She said to the newcomers and big robots. "Tell th' grin'r e's a poopybutt onna peeza toast."

What's in the box?

After a few seconds, Gemini jumped up and shouted triumphantly. "Got it!" Unfortunately, she was too late to be of much help. Almost immediately after her shout the room exploded into action. It happened faster than human eyes could follow. She just stared at the heap of metal and flames that had been Fake Hollowpoint. "Damn it!" The hacker hissed. "A few more seconds and you would have..." She trailed off, turning to look at the two other intruders. "Hello. No aggro here, guys. Are we shine?"

Her eyes moved back to the laser grid. "Anyone want to see what that impostor was so eager to get its hands on?" She said, walking over to the wall in front of the lasers. "We'll just take a little peak." It didn't take her long to find the network and force her way in. She tried to disable the security measures and unlock the door. Maybe she could still find what Cinereal wanted and salvage this mess.

The place where there used to be two floors

Ziggy ran up behind Hollowpoint, though with legs and not corkscrew drives, she was still some ways behind. She pointed her weapon at the intruders, and seeing no resistance, continued her swift approach, just behind the Hollowpoint wrecking ball, and finally lowered her weapon.

"Right, so... who here's our fleshmender-slash-medical person? Show of hands? ...Me again, alright."

With the matter once again settled the usual way, the untrained but unfortunately not inexperienced, and unfortunately all-purpose Truthfinder went in search of something less like forensic evidence and more like for tourniquet material, her goals for the moment in line with ensuring a clearer distinction between Kiver's insides and outsides. (Maybe some of that rubber tubing? Wires and cables could be unforgiving, and even unkind.) She slid Kiver's weapon under a piece of rubble for safekeeping as she approached to take care of the bleeding injury.

The ceiling could use a cleaning...

The scraping and the clunking of the floor being turned into a makeshift ramp turned the ragdoll of Six-Three into more of a heap as he tried to wrap his head around all that was happening. He grabbed a scrap of cloth from the Pseudo-Hollowpoint, and now they were fighting a giant robot which they were losing to. Pretty badly by the looks of the flames as their mis-guide burst into flames, probably won't be smirking after that. His right eye still flickering in and out was starting to bother him, so he shut it off for now as he focused on his breathing. His diaphragm was having difficulty adjusting to the new dent in his tread, but he'll manage until he can fix it.

Keying into the Ensemble he talked to Jack "Jack, Six-Three here. We're pretty badly beat up, Kiver is getting some quick attention from someone that's pretty trusting seeing as we just busted a couple of holes in their ship. I've taken a couple of blows more than I'm comfortable with, but I think I'll manage. Also, I think it's safe to say that the station's polysentience is OK to access, apologizing profusely should be at the top of the list."

Six-Three reached up and took off his suit helmet, seeing as he didn't really need it at the moment, and with a ragged breath, "Yeah...you're kind of...it for now. Genesculptor 63...5262...8271. Thanks....for the help...and sorry...for blowing holes...in your...station." He sat up, this time far more slowly as the adrenaline was wearing off, and stood up with one arm bracing against the wall.

The Trauma Ramp

"Don't apologize to me, apologize to Hollowpoint," Ziggy quipped as she worked on Kiver, gesturing unhelpfully toward what remained of both entities who had given that name. "Maybe you're even, now."

She gestured offhandedly to herself as she looped a cable. "Truthfinder Double-Oh. Tell me what you know, and this will go a bit easier. Let's start with the 'why' of this." She offered to make radio contact, so Six-Three could breathe more easily.