Log:Space Team, Scene 10

Space Team 2015/09/07 Breach Griffin Quiet 10

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.

In the vents, Breach can see it travels in two horizontal directions through the Medbay. They go on for a distance and he can see branching intersections.

The vents are also big enough to handle a crouched person walking. There's something wet and slimy leading a trail from one direction. The vent travels generally in the direction from the outer hull of the starport and towards the central section. This trail looked like it came from the central part of the starport, which is where you were traveling to.

"Oh good. They're spreading out from the central section," comments Breach in a sour tone of voice. He also curses his luck that R&D has not yet finished work on those riot foam grenades he was promised. Breach slowly lowers himself from the ceiling and drops to the ground with a light *klunk* of boots on deck plating.

Quiet doesn't worry about hygiene for herself. Her suit can be cleaned later. Once the woman is stable, she quickly adjusts some of the suit's gravitics to project a field to support and lift her. Quiet lifts her focus upwards to Breach up at the vent as she readies her weapon again. She moves one lifted hand in a quick clockwise circle before stepping back out of the room. The medic floats with her.

Griffin notices a Bio-Gel dispensor on the wall. He grins as he drops the bio-gel applicator tip from his STIMpak into the biological waste container. Then he plugs the small device into the dispensor. The machine does the rest.

A few seconds later, the machine emits a pleasant ding and Griffin's device pops out ready to be taken from its slot.

Griffin returns the refreshed device to his MEDkit and heads out the door behind Quiet. He'll ask for a SitRep en route.

Breach is the last to leave the room, once more carrying his particle revolver as he actively shadows the others. Well, perhaps "shadows" is the wrong word here. He's really following in their wake, keeping an eye on their six in case any more freaky-deaky things decide to pop out of the vents to kill them.

Quiet heads back for the main radial trunk that they diverted from. If the creatures have acces to the center, they potentially have access to control. And they already thought that the MedBay was relatively secure. She gets them back onto their original course. It's dark, but it's the most direct. And if they don't get there quickly, there may be no one left to evacuate.

Back at the junction, the direct path to Operations is pitch black, although everyone can see with their equipment.

Breach pauses at the four-way intersection. He looks around slowly, thoughtfully, and intones, "There a power substation or a weapons locker around here that isn't down the blacked out path?"

The flashing klaxons' light provides no assistance to the heroes. Luckily they came prepared. Griffin flashes his headset to infra-red. His HUD alights with Quiet's form, and the medic floating in her pod.

He follows Quiet into the darkness without hesitation, but he does unholster his sidearm in preparation for what dangers have made themselves home here in the darkness.

The hair on his neck stands on end as he crosses the invisible threshhold into the darkness.

Now at point, Quiet holds up a fist for a halt at the edge of the darkness. A few quick taps divert the last of her suit's secondary power to holographics and a projection is made over her back for the squad's benefit. An overlay of her known station map of the area, along with her/their current position (GPS/Bump of Direction). Highlighted are Ops, power generation stations, comms, and other known critical areas nearby.

Quiet then brings her weapon up as it alters further. She takes several aimed shots to fire burst sensors down the corridor. One 'detonates' silently at each cross-junction that lies ahead. While only an instant, single 'ping', each passive sensor collects data in all directions (including down the cross-corridors) and relays it to her HUD. This is also fed to the holographic overlay on her back.

Quiet waits for the return data, mometarily hilighting the 'pings' on the team holoboard behind her. When all appears clear, she motions to move out. The indicator for Ops is highlighted as their destination, and she forges ahead.

Breach sighs slightly and rolls his shoulders. Moving into a cover position behind the rest of the group again, Breach lifts the particle revolver and sets to moving out like a good soldier. A good, undead soldier.

Quiet moves through the darkness previously assault by her magic missiles, squad and casualty in tow. They move past the cross-junctions and to the inner ring T-junction. She pokes around to left then right to quickly clear the junction before taking the squad right. The hatch to Ops should not be far ahead, now.

Breach continues to trail the others, particle revolver sweeping in time with his gaze. It is, presumably, slow forward progress to maximize stealth and minimize the potential for encounters with murderous giant space insects. He meditates on the possibilities that such horrifying things present about life in the universe whilst the group is paused for Quiet to clear both paths at the T-junction.

Griffin looks at the floor grating and the paneling of the walkway. 'I'm a real Space Ranger now!' He thinks merrily. He compares this adventure to those of his sci-fi fantasies with a secret smile on his face.

He focuses his mind back on rescuing the hostages and off his future bucket-list.

All three alert soldiers hear the scrapping and movement in the vent ducts above them as they pass underneath a vent. Breach even sees movement through the slot. And Quiet's motion detector starts to beep with increasing alarm.

Quiet's line of sight and weapon muzzle immediately swivel to the sounds above them, though she maintains some movement towards Operations.

Breach frowns as he watches thing(s) moving through the vents overhead. He slows his breathing and keeps pace with the others, edging toward Operations as he keeps his particle revolver at the ready. There's something about this situation that seems terribly familiar to him. Grinding his teeth slowly, Breach resists the urge to pipe up with a salty comment. Now is definitely not the time for salty comments.

Griffin hears the sound and his eyes and gun swivel in the direction of the terrifing sound.

He walks backwards, keeping pace with Quiet and their medical luggage. He gulps.

Griffin recognizes their current predictament from some great classic or another. He just hopes this goes better than they did on the Sulaco- but with multiple cuddle-bugs above them he doubts that's going to happen. He fights the urge to ask which one of them is Ripley. He keeps his gun sighted on the sound above as they continue for Ops.

Breach pulls a grenade from his combat harness, nimbly hooking his thumb across the spoon and through the pin. He doesn't quite let everything go, however, as he vaults upward toward the vent cover. The particle revolver goes back in its holster as he attempts to latch onto the vent and ram his hand straight through the grating of the cover. With a flick of his wrist, Breach sends the now spoonless and pinless grenade rolling down the vents toward what he hopes to be the middle of the pack of aliens.

A moment later, its sides pop out to reveal small laser emitters as it locks onto targets. Whirling itself around on its own axis, the grenade starts spewing lasers at anything it can target in the vents.

The grenade lets off two shots that Breach can here. And then there's a clattering and scraping of pinpoint feet scuttling rapidly in a charge.

Suddenly behind the group, the ceiling makes the sound of screeching metal as several pointed chitinous limbs punch through the metal, weakening it before the spider-like alien crashes through the rest. It lands on six of the many limbs, while four other limbs hold on to the edge of the above hole to lower it safely. Weren't spiders bad enough with 8 limbs? These bastards have 10! Well, the extra set is more positioned like arms almost, similar to a praying mantis.

The alien's tail end curls forward with a stinger aimed at Griffin.

Meanwhile, Breach hears more heavy sounds from where his hand is stuck through...

Quiet's weapon rapidly reconfigures, bore growing larger. Her aim then markedly lowers and traverses to the right, to... the wall? A low thump sounds as a device is launched into the inner wall adjacent to the ...bugs. It blinks once, just once, before the custom-shaped charge within detonates.

Quiet's weapon rapidly reconfigures, bore growing larger. Her aim then markedly lowers and traverses to the right, to... the wall? A low thump sounds as a device is launched into the inner wall adjacent to the ...bugs. It blinks once, just once, before the custom-shaped charge within detonates.

The first alien's stinger strikes Griffin in the abdomen with incredible force.

Up in the vents where Breach's hand is stuck through, he feels several wet tendrils wrap around his hand and wind down his arm. Some sort of slimey drool begins to run down his arm. And the spittle very quickly begins to burn with searing intensity, eating away and flesh and desolving whatever it touches.

You know what sucks? Getting your forearm stuck in a grate because somehow they never bend so it's just as easy to remove as it was to get in there. Breach struggles, as the sounds grow closer to his trapped hand, to wrench himself free of the vent. And then, of course, something slimy and fleshy and horrible starts licking and tangling around his hand and wrist.

Breach lets out a howl of pain and terror as he feels his Breach suit dissolving off of his hand and forearm, followed quickly by his flesh and muscle. The worst part, of course, is that his muscle starts growing back immediately, resisting the digestive slime even as it sears his nerves.

Griffin is caught by surprise by the giant alien stinger. The strike hits him hard and low in the abdomen- if he'd been hit much harder he'd be holding his guts in.

He's knocked back on his ass with some force. Hetries to get back up but realizes he's had the wind knocked out of him.

Quiet ejects the now-spent magazine and slaps a new one in with practiced muscle memory. The bore modifies again as she takes aim at the one visible: namely that in the corridor that hit Griffin. She takes a few steps to the side to get a clear line of fire before unloading a three-round burst.

The creature digs in its pointed appendages, and still it staggers back as some of its limbs are hit in the spray of fire. It goes down and thrashes angrily, trying to twist its way back to its many feet.

Incentivized by the fact that something is trying to EAT HIS HAND, Breach wrenches his hand out of the vent and drops toward the ground. As he drops to the ground, Breach's good hand grabs the particle revolver from his holster and cocks the hammer. There's the characteristic whine of the accelerator spooling up as Breach lands in a two-point stance and narrows his eyes. Breathing in deeply to steady himself, Breach holds out the particle revolver as he centers himself in the hallway, in the universe, and on killing aliens. Really, Breach, it'll be easy with that red laser sight lancing through the darkness from your gun's muzzle.

The alien Quiet shot writhes around into his stomach, its legs lifting itself off the ground. It scuttles rapidly towards her, curling its stinger tail forward as it charges.

In the vents, the other alien smashes through, tearing apart metal and dropping down after Breach to continue its meal. The slavering tendrils that rise out of its throat and through its maw reach for Breach again.

"Been waiting for you," growls Breach as the alien erupts out of the vents. He minutely adjusts his aim, painting the ravening maw of the alien with his pilot beam. Quirking his lips into a sour, disgusted smile, Breach pulls the trigger. An orange-yellow beam of energized protons sizzles along the conduit of the pilot beam, hopefully to fill the thing's head with RAW ATOMIC DEATH.

Quiet has absolutely zero intentions of getting impaled by alien tail stingers, especially not on a space station in orbit. She quickly swings her rifle up in a defensive melee posture and deflects the strike ot one side.

Breach's particle beam streaks right into the alien's maw. Two of the many tendrils are severed, dropping to the deck and wriggling about. The alien itself is surprised as its head snaps back. The creature twists and turns as if trying to escape the assault, crashing onto its side. Its limbs move more slowly as it tries to get its bearings.

Griffin hears his compatriots giving the bugs hell. He's not going out like a 3rd tier actor on a Friday Night SyFy disaster flick.

He rolls to his feet and aims his side arm at the bug. "Think these bugs are getting too big for their britches! Someone better show'em the boot." He says with a pained smile.

The alien that's about to try and impale Quiet again with a stringer gets shot by Griffin in the side of the head. It tumbles and smashes its skulls against the side of the corridor and slumps to the ground.

Griffin nods to Quiet as his shot hits his mark and bug hits the ground. "Meet Boot." He says to the dead bug as he swivels for the remaining insectoid dancing with Breach.

Breach wants to leap forward and stand over the alien as he pumps a shot dead into the alien monstrosity. He wants to do that so badly it actually hurts. Or maybe that's just his mangled left hand.

Instead, Breach adjusts his position and holds out the particle revolver as he cocks the hammer again. Narrowing his eyes slightly, Breach moves the pilot beam up and down the alien for an instant before he settles on what looks like a weak point to him. Echoing Griffin, Breach intones, "This is my Raid Can," in frosty tones. A moment later, Breach pulls the trigger, sending another sizzling, crackling bolt of orange energy/matter down stream at the alien bug monster.

The bolt of highly energized protons slams into the point of the alien bug monster's body where its head, neck, and shoulders all come to a junction. Weakened by the previous blast aimed down its gullet, this junction point shatters under the initial burst of electrical and radiological energy surging into it. Raw flesh is exposed and boiled away under the heat and continued radiation contained in the particle stream, cooking away first one side and then the other of the monster's neck and sending electricity sizzling through the creature's nervous system as the beam slowly dissipates back to merely the ionizing pilot beam.

Breach, watching as the damn thing jerks and sputters whilst bleeding(???) out on the deck plates, lets out a war whoop. He launches forward, landing on the thing's carapace before he jerks his leg back and *BOOT*s the damn thing's head off, sending it skittering and clattering down the darkened hallway in the opposite direction of Operation.

"How do you like me now, bitch?! HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW?!"

Quiet watches, waits, silently (as usual) for a few moments. Once the threats are confirmed down, she takes a moment to make a quick check of the wounded medic. If she's lucky, she's still stable and unconscious. The latter just to remain blissfullly unaware of all that.

Griffin heads for Breach- High five hand at the ready. "HELL YEAH!" He shouts.

Breach looks at Griffin, then at the mangled, smoking, inflamed blob that is his appropriate high-fiving hand.

"You see the problem here too, right?"

Griffin does of course. He's undejected as he offers his elbow instead.

Quiet looks up from her charge to the man who could use a hand. She steps towards, retrieving some gauze swiped from the medbay to brandish it.

"Eh... The flesh'll heal," grumbles Breach at Quiet, waving her off with his blob hand. It's already starting to grow in a brand spanking new dermis as Breach moves to high-elbow Griffin. "What I need is new gauntlet."

Quiet nods. Lucky him. Most she knows have to make due to cybernetic replacements, at best. Since they're good enough to celebrate, they're good enough to move out. She waves the boys to mount up, so to speak, and she resumes their course for Ops.