Into the Black, Part IIIb: Team Delta

[bring_a_sponge]

Looking to the right, the hallway goes quite a ways down. There are several doors along the way, but also an open space at the far end that looks like it might be a stairwell.

Unfortunately, it's immediately clear that these hallways aren't going to provide any cover whatsoever.

Comments

[gammagammahey.livejournal.com]

On the one hand, Jen will likely not pass for MiB personnel, given her appearance. On the other, the first thing that comes along is likely going to be slowed down once it tangles with Jen, if not stopped altogether. Time is a very valuable commodity in an insertion situation.

"I'll take point until the curve to the right down there. Okay, girls? Let's move, and mow them down with sheer estrogen power."

She winks at Duo. "Boys can play, too."

She shoulders her bag of grenades, then steps into the hallway, staying close to the righthand wall, and approaches the curve, flattening herself against the wall as she gets closer.

[[OOC: cleared with Zed mun first. Hope everyone is okay with Jen going first into the hallway. :-)]]

[maxwellsdemon02]

"You're so generous ma'am," he says, rolling his eyes and double checking one of his explosive settings.

Duo falls into place at the rear of the group and takes the safety off his weapon. "Don't forget to look up, everyone."

[alwaysroomforhope]

"I got up covered," Steph says, checking the compartments on her belt are all closed tight. "You guys focus on down."

She's way too excited about this, even if you can hardly see that through the mask.

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

Goldy is still familiarizing herself with all her new toys. A click and a spark later, and the ominous hiss at the muzzle of her hi-tech Korlian FT-12 ignites into a gently whickering pilot flame.

"Oh, are we talking?" she pipes up innocently.

"I thought we were going for stealth until first contact."

Stairway

[bring_a_sponge]

At the end of the hall, they find a stairway, just like Zed said they would. It's wide and bright light from the floor above shines down on the stairs.

The stairway goes up to the main floor without any curves. But there are two pipes running along the angled ceiling above them, and both pipes apparently keep going, all the way up to the rafters over the Main Hall.


And, man, even from the angled view down here, those rafters look pretty high up.

Re: Stairway

[gammagammahey.livejournal.com]

"This place is so Stanley Kubrick."

It somehow manages to convey blandness with high tech futurism, in Jen's eyes.

Jen advances down to the end of the hall - fortunately, her white Shulkie shoes don't make much noise - and looks up the stairway. Those pipes are tempting - yank sections of both down, and she can have two giant bo staffs. Or nunchucks.

Re: Stairway

[maxwellsdemon02]

Duo pokes his head around the girls to check out the stairway as well. He doesn't make any noise either, despite the combat boots.

"Look Steph, it's a playground for you. You wanna go up here, or check the lay of the land up the stairs? Opinions, Goldy?"

Leaning against the wall, Duo reaches into his bag and pulls out a chunk of what looks like putty and starts to mold it.

Re: Stairway

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

Goldy's opinion is to unannouncedly aim a searing jet of fire up the stairs, from the wand of her flamethrower.





It last about five seconds.

In the aftermath, the walls and steps exhibit a less-pristinely deco shade of charring, though they aren't visibly smoking.

"Um... weapons check?"

The Fable glances around sheepishly at her team mates.

Too many copies

[bring_a_sponge]

The flying things slow down for a moment at the sight of Team Delta coming up the stairs. Whatever they are, they are ugly. And their faces are covered with a slowly dripping black ooze that could only be the Oil.

Sure enough, they don't seem to be noticing Steph up in the rafters.

But they sure as hell have seen her teammates, as they suddenly drop to divebomb the Deltas, cackling loudly all the way as their metallic tentacles slash through the air.

Re: Too many copies

[maxwellsdemon02]

"Cover me!" he calls to Goldy, ducking down low.

He raises Zed on the comm. "Boss man! We just found flying things with metal tentacles. Shoot to kill?"

Re: Too many copies

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

Goldy obliges the request quickly, not that she actually needed an excuse to open fire. Lifting her primary weapon, she sprays a scorching arc of flame towards the approaching bots.

"There's oil on them," she points out over the roar.

"Whatever they used to be, they're no friend of ours now!"

Re: Too many copies

[bring_a_sponge]

Zed comes on the comm, the sound of intense gun- and alien weaponfire in the background.

"Maxwell! What the--? Metal tentacles? Flying around?"

"It's Hailley! Shoot to kill? Shoot to blast that son-of-a-bitch into a million pieces and then you stomp those pieces to bits!!!"

"That clear enough for ya!?"

Elevator

[bring_a_sponge]

Now that the Hailleys are scattered in ruins around the Hall, Team Delta can hear that low, rumbling sound in the distance again. A quick scan of the Main Hall is all they need to see a glass elevator. Obviously that must be the way up to the Landing Bay that Zed told them about.

Re: Elevator

[gammagammahey.livejournal.com]

Jen hears that rumble, oh yes she does. The kind of rumble that probably heralds unpleasant encounters and should most definitely herald a sense of urgency.

But she spots the elevator, amidst the weird furniture, which looks straight out of a Courreges photo shoot in Vogue from 1968. Maybe Courreges was an alien, after all?

"Guys! Elevator! Let's go! Anything comes at us, it's getting tossed into next week. Go, go, GO!"

Of course, it WOULD look like the elevator in Scarface, and provide them with no cover at all. Jen runs for it - no point in trying for stealth, after all the sound and fury they've just caused, and when she reaches it, she starts looking for buttons, but of course, there aren't any, because it's just a clear tube. Just like the one in Scarface.

"Zed! We're almost at the elevator! How do we work it? Michelle Pfeiffer's nowhere in sight," she adds.

Re: Elevator

[bring_a_sponge]

Zed is on the comm after a momentary delay.

"...Shoulda had them deported when I had the chance--. What? Walters? Just a sec."

More sounds of weapons fire.

"...Just say 'Landing Bay.' The elevator is prepped for all Earth accents. It'll take you right there."

"...Gotta go. Taking fire, kicking ass...Good luck!"

Re: Elevator

[maxwellsdemon02]

"Sounds like they're having as good a time as we are," Duo says in a wry tone as he steps up to the elevator. The door opens automatically.

He grins and steps in, but doesn't relax. They aren't close to done yet. "Who's Michelle Pfeiffer, anyway?"

Landing bay

[bring_a_sponge]

The elevator whooshes swiftly up three flights to Level D, where the glass door slides back soundlessly and Team Delta is set at the edge of a room almost as large as the Main Hall itself.

This place is packed with all kinds of stuff, including several types of vehicles, some maybe even for limited space travel.

But the real stand-out is at rest near the center of the Bay.

In fact, there's only one problem. Well, six of them actually. Are they're already on the move, trying to cut off the Deltas from all the shiny things.

It might be useful to mention that each of them is about twelve feet tall and just about as long. Infected by Black Oil? Yes. And covered in disgusting slime? Very definitely, yes.

Re: Landing bay

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

"Are we agreed that giant cockroaches fall under the classification of bad guys?"

Goldy is staring at the monstrous invertebrates, not fearfully, just purely repulsed. The disgusted face she pulls as she powers up her Deatomizer confirms her feelings.

"Yeuch! Did anyone bring Raid?"

Re: Landing bay

[maxwellsdemon02]

"...agreed. Definitely agreed, especially by the way they're looking at us. I'm starting to count up the number of cockroaches I've squished in my lifetime. I don't think these guys'll like me much."

He readies his gun.

"Scatter, or go in as a group?"

Boom

[bring_a_sponge]

And what a great button it is.

With a mighty WHOOSH a Crossbow missile launches from the mech and streaks across the Landing Bay with a piercing whine before slamming into the bug with a tremendously satisfying:

BOOM

The Oil is burned to a cinder, but big slabs of bug fly all over the Landing Bay, along with an appalling amount of slime.

And there's also the part where the entire Bay shudders with the explosion, to the point where a large section of the floor gives way, pancaking level by level, allll the way down to sublevel C, barely missing the shooting gallery.

Zed's voice is already coming over the comm, "MAXWELL!! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!?!"

Re: Boom

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

Goldy was caught in the open when Steph brutally grenaded her bug. And as much as she was impressed by the Robin's ruthlessness, she quickly became unimpressed by the deluge of slime that rained down on her in the aftermath.

Duo's extra-messy annihilation of the last bug doesn't improve the Fable's mood. Covered head-to-toe in alien insect guts, she now looks dangerously unhappy.

"...Fuck."

All but ignoring the new hole, she spits a few times, morosely wondering if the gunk has impregnated her balaclava. She daren't check.

Re: Boom

[alwaysroomforhope]

"Oops, sorry," Steph says, with a stunning lack of apology. In fact, she's giggling. She's got a super-suit - the gunk's just sliding off. And the giant hole in the floor ...

...well, look, she's been cooped up in Milliways for a long time. That's hard on a girl who likes jumping from skyscrapers.

"Are you guys thinking what I'm thinking?"

Her de-cel cable is already out.

LOOK IT'S A BIG HOLE TO JUMP DOWN! WHY ARE THEY WAITING?

More worms!

[bring_a_sponge]

"Chookala fanga."

"Hey, you wanna see, you go out there!"

"I like it here."

"Would you guys shut up!?"

The rubber tubes are jostling around a lot more now.

Re: More worms!

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

Goldy frowns harder. Her first instinct is still to annihilate the pile, but something about the voices causes her to hesitate. They don't sound particularly malevolent.

"Hey. You in the tubes. Show yourselves! You've got three seconds before meltdown commences."

She taps her headset.

"Zed. More potential hostiles in the Landing Bay. Don't wait for me."

All she gets back is a mixture of static and frenzied noise.

Re: More worms!

[bring_a_sponge]

"Oh shit!"

"Wanga!"

"Shut up!"

"Yeah, shut up!"

"Quiet already!"

"Sssshh, maybe they'll go away."

Beat.

Beat.

"Think they're gone yet?"

"SHUT UP!!"