Log:Space Team, Scene 9

Space Team 2015/09/05 Breach Griffin Quiet

9 "Fine by me," replies Breach. He keeps his particle revolver raised, head swiveling this way and that to survey their immediate surroundings. Even so, Breach does spare a few seconds to stare down the darkened corridor, the mirrored orange visor of his helmet concealing his brown eyes as they pointedly stare into the darkness.

Abject darkness or not, the corridor is lit up in a palette of greens, oranges, and blue-indigoes that would better suit the gaze of someone trippin' on LSD. His particle revolver's iron sights are occasionally visible at the lower edge of a comic cell as Breach studies the darkness.

Both Breach and Griffin hear it. It's distant, and in these metal corridors, it's muffled and echoes. Bout both can get a bead on the direction. There's a blood curdling scream somewhere in the direction of the left corridor. Yes...definitely the left. The sound from the right is just bounce-back.

Quiet can see just fine for most things in the darkness. Unless they don't show up on infrared at all. With the consensus, she's just about to move ahead on the most direct route.... and then there are screams. She doesn't even bother to point to the left, and simply turns to move into the cross-corridor.

Griffin hears the screams and his blood curdles. He knows nothing down that corridor is happy sunshine friendly time so really no reason to go down there. But he turns to the left, and begins a sprint towards the scream. If he can save even one person, it might be worth it.

He hopes like hell the others can keep up.

Breach edges forward two steps, then backpedals two steps as the scream really echoes through the halls and he's certain he's not actively hallucinating. He promptly swivels left, right, left, right, B, A.

Pausing a second to re-orient himself, Breach swivels toward the port-side hall and sweeps his particle revolver up again. Breach promptly proceeds into the cross-corridor a step behind and a step to the left of Quiet. He certainly is not hoping that the Konami Code will grant him invulnerability like it does in Contra.

Griffin takes the lead with his superior speed, but the others are in hot pursuit. The corridor curves much like the outer ring. Emergency lights light the path in an illuminated trail, flashing in sequence in a particular direction to guide people in an emergency, of course.

As the corridor curves, there's window paneling that reveals a room that's pitch black. It's occasionally lit by sparks. The sparks illuminate through the window and onto the wall opposite it on the corridor. There's a silohuette of...something not human. With many bony limbs? Maybe it's just a spider's shadow being distorted to look bigger. And then it's gone as the sparks flicker off and on.

The closed doors further past the window slide open and a woman with shoulder-length ginger hair emerges with a terror-stricken face as she runs for deer life. She's got one foot out of the doorway when suddenly a spiked appendandge spears her from behind and bursts out of her abdomen. Blood sprays against the corridor floor and wall. Her eyes go wide and she lets out a scream that's cut short into a gurgle, clutching the wound as whatever she's impaled on starts to drag her back in. The young woman manages grabs hold of each side of the door, desperately trying to stop her movement backwards. Her terror-filled eyes turn to Griffin, the first face she sees, before she's yanked back hard. Her bloodied fingers slip and she disappears back into the dark room.

Quiet hopes the woman is not mortally wounded, but that hope is forced to be pushed aside. Her weapon rapidly reconfigures itself and she launched a round into the room. Non-lethal, but the white-hot flash and deafening detonation can still impair things that need to be impaired. Or so Quiet can hope.

The Flashbang goes off inside the room. The flash fills even the corridor with light, but thankfully the team isn't affected.

Breach sees the shadow cast from the intermittently spark-lit room they pass. He keeps his composure, however, and keeps hustling toward the source of the scream. After all, Breach reasons, if that /THING/ isn't aware of them, there's no need to alert it to their presence by trying to kill it through an intact security(?) window.

Forward motion comes to a screeching halt when that woman comes scrambling out of the security doors. He starts to say something, though he chokes off as the woman is gored by a bony murderpendage from somewhere in the darkness beyond her and the doors. Breach brings his particle revolver up, both hands gripping the gun as he waits for the opportunity to fire to present itself. A lone red laser beam lances out of the revolver's muzzle to paint the doorway even as Quiet casts Magic Missile on the darkness.

There's still the strangled, gurgling sounds of the woman, but weaker now. And the sound of...slurping? Something wet and tearing, and the crunch of something hard.

In a standard raid, the flashbang is the cue to hit the room hard. Griffin decides he's best suited to be the one who knocks on the door.

After the light dims Griffin slides up to the doorway, and rolls through it gun held high. He scans the room as he moves looking for the monster within.

As Griffin goes inside, he sees with his nightvision that this is the med lab. Although it doesn't look like it can serve as one anymore. There's six med flatbeds, three of which have patients who look like they were slaughtered where they lay. And ahead of you, you see...it.

It's a lot clearer than in the photo. And now that you're face to face with it, it's at least seven feet tall. What wasn't visible in the picture is the stinger tail behind it. The thing's mottled plates glisten when the electricity sparks in the room. They're glossy and slick. And it's still holding the woman aloft. She's dressed in a medic's garb of mint green and red. Although the red isn't part of the uniform. The medic's being held aloft, her feet dangling and twitching a foot off the ground. Her mouth is open in a scream but no sound can get out. The alien's sunk its razor sharp teeth into her shoulder. They crunched into the bone and it takes a bite out of her, munching noisily. Its eight eyes are unblinking and it reacts to Griffin's appearance by raising its head and smacking its jaws.

Griffin doesn't hesitate, he fires his gun while strafing to his right to draw the ire of the creature towards him, giving his compatriots room to enter unabated.

He hopes he's tough enough to do this, but there isn't time to worry. With any luck it'll turn out like Dragon-breath and he'll have learned about a new power of his. Worse case- dead. Wouldn't be the first time he's faced that particular calamity, won't be the last when duty calls.

He puts his eyes on his target and sights his shot. He sets it to Laser andprays he doesn't puncture a hole in the ship.

The armor piercing red hot laser burns through the alien's thick carapace and penetrates inside, cooking the flesh within. The smell is...awful. Like rotten fish and formaldehyde. It's head throws back and acidic tendrils thrash out of its maw as it lets out a screach unlike anything most have heard, if any. It thrashes and lowers its bone apendage holding the medic. The woman slides off of the limb and falls to the floor with a wet thump.

Quiet moves after Griffin for the room clearing. The quicker its dead, the quicker they can treat the medic and clear the route to ops. She sidesteps in, weapon raised and ready, even as it reconfigures itself to something more lethal.

The alien takes three shots. They spark and report off of the creature's carapace and send it falling onto its back across the room. It's many legs twitch and then fold in on itself like a dead bug.

Quiet puts a controlled three-round burst into it. After it falls, she'll gladly put another three into it. Just in case. It also makes her feel better. She can then turn to tend to the wounded woman, unless one of the others jumps in with a medical kit. Maybe even then.

Griffin turns to face his compatriots with a grin. He raises his hand and swirls it in a clockwise motion (rally up) and then beacons them forward. He drops to his knees before the injured medic.

Breach is, perhaps ironically, the last person to burst into the medbay. He sweeps his particle revolver and his gaze around the room rapidly, painting walls and floor and ceiling and bodies with the red light of his pilot laser until he's certain that all is dozy. Even then, Breach keeps his gun at the ready as he stands overwatch as Quiet and Griffin tend to the grievously wounded woman.

The woman is alive...but dying and bleeding out. Griffin may be able to stabilize her, but she needs real medical attention.'

Breach notices the air vent in the ceiling is missing. That must've been its entry point.

The alien twitches again as its shot, then goes still once more.

The woman is in really bad shape. Griffin is certain the woman will die soon, but he believes with a little luck she can be stabilized and brought to someone who can provide her real medical attention. He begins staunching her wound to get a good ggauge of the damage.

It's not good. There's a lot of blood, and a stright through puncture mark. Though her organs do mostly appear to be in tact from what Griffin can tell.

He pulls out one of his STIMpaks and places the applicator on her wound. He twists the dial to control the viscosity of the fluid to fill the wound completely. The bio-gel will help the body heal, but even with its help she may still die. This is literally just a really good band-aid. He turns to Quiet hoping she has the training to save this woman.

Quiet crouches to tend the shoulder wound while Griffin works on the abdomen. She doesn't have high tech medical equipment, but field experience... and they're in the med lab. She grabs gauze from the counter nearby and packs the wound, offering extras for Griffin to use. Topical antiseptics (beause who knows where that alien mouth has been), direct pressure, and even clamps or staples for bleeders if needed. She'll definitely need more advanced treatment, but for now keeping her alive is top priority.

With the two people providing emergency aid, they at least manage to stem the bleeding. The medic will be okay...for now.

Breach, once he's assured that nothing horrible is about to Kool-Aid through a wall or the door, investigates an important facet of the room. He steps around the triage station and moves toward one of the circulation points for the ventillation system. There's a soft, pneumatic sound before Breach abruptly sails upward toward the ceiling.

Almost casually, Breach hangs from just below a wide-open air vent. He very cautiously grips the edges of the shaft and pulls his head up so he can peer around inside of the shaft - assuming, of course, that it's not a purely vertical shaft - and investigate for clues.

Griffin only stands after he's sure that his and Quiet's work was successful. So when Breach leaps up to the vent he only turns his head to make sure nothing crazy was going on out of his line of sight.

Using some of the gauze Quiet provided he finishes dressing her abdomen wound.

Then he stands and heads to the sink to wash his hands. He decides he needs to get some special gloves for just such work, but is grateful to have been working with someone as experienced as Quiet in field medicine.