Trinity Universe: Holo Lives

[knave]

Chrome Prime: Strange bedfellows

Daniel holds up his hand towards the Abberant. English, what a wonderful language. "Please, put your weapon down." Daniel holsters his screamer, it's useless against something like this. "Look, we weren't expecting to meet... umm.. Transhumans here. I'm not a medic, but I'm sure someone on our team can help your wife, but can you tell us what your doing here?" Daniel's voice is wavery. It wasn't his job to negotiate with Terrorist in New Dehli, he just difused the bombs.

"Fine, fine. We're coming in, just don't hit any more of my people..."

For a moment Hastings considers that it's Screamer-boy who's just gone into the smoke, & that his job might even be a little easier without him, but manages to chase the cruel thought away... ::devil

"... No, don't hit anyone." ::sly

The aberrant’s reply is strained, ”The blade is in the doorway, I think, so watch out, but please hurry! Even if you guys aren’t medics, you’re some sort of soldiers, right? You know field dressings? I don’t know how this wet-tech of yours works. Is there some sort of catalytic agent?”

The smoke slowly begins to clear enough for Daniel to physically see into the building’s main storeroom, and indeed, the aberrant’s long axe is lying on the floor through the doorway to the main room – right where he must have been thrown it to stop Caroline Hsu. At this point Hastings returns carrying the half-frozen chromatic ‘Witness’, and then steps outside again and collects the unconscious ministry agent.

Daniel and Robert step warily into the main room, which is much as Daniel knew it would be. The tall aberrant has opened the first flap of the bioshelter’s heatlock and, through the transparent inner door, they see a woman lying on the shelter’s medibed next to the hyperfusion generator, which is obviously on its maximum heat setting. She is as strange a ::squid as any in a Trinity holo. She has no tentacles, but her bare arms are short and pudgy like a baby’s. Her bust is very large, and her hips are very wide, and her thighs are solid though her waist is so narrow that she could easily encircle it with her tiny hands. Her orange-red hair waves about her head as if in some breeze. Her body is covered in a dirty, white-towelling robe that has had the arms ripped off it. Her face; no nose, a slit for a mouth and open multifaceted eyes, above which, a small chunk of flint (by the looks of it) is embedded deep in her forehead. Around this spike several dull-brown field bandages have been wrapped, but blood has oozed through them and is now dripping down her face and into her hair.

Drawing closer to the heat, Daniel sees immediately what has happened. The field bandages are designed to disinfect a wound, drawing out toxins, providing pain relief and aiding in the recovery of the patient. They are designed to die and fall off as they become contaminated by the infection that they are fighting. That normally takes a few days. Who knows how long they’d last when placed next to the taint radiations from a damaged Mazarin-Rashoud node.

The tall aberrant gives the chromie prisoner a dark look as Hastings gets ready to put it inside the shelter (which is sweltering, but outside is still probably not warm enough to thaw the witness out, not with the front door well and truly annihilated), but then looks hopefully back and forth from one to the other and then words come out of him in a twanging torrent, ”So, how does it work? Can you help her? I need you to help Lilith. I’m not sure if you know about us, we were part of the Space Brigade. We always knew that Mal was right, but that we’d have to leave. We didn’t want to fight anyone, we were just waiting for as many as possible to erupt and we wanted to be there. We were practicing you see. We were practicing how we’d make a new colony, on the moon. We tried so hard to make sure that no one got hurt because of us. We were the ones who founded The Colony… “ and it seems as if he is about to break down completely, ”Oh God, why did things have to go like this? Why? It was waiting for us out there in Space. It was for us in The Colony. Uriel said he could find a way out for us, he brought us here, but then… These things fought back. He didn’t count on that. They were so fierce. We deserved it, but we had no choice, no choice at all… Why aren’t you helping? Please help her. Please”

{Checking though the supplies reveals that the shelter is stocked with plentiful water and food in the way of glup, as well as the latest bio-tech medical facilities. Unfortunately that means that there is little that can be done for the aberrant beyond the application of simple penicillin and strong painkillers. Stopping the bleeding entirely would require an incredibly skilled vascular neurologist. Both Daniel and Robert are quite aware that she is very likely to die soon, and if she'd been human she would have done so instantly she got the wound.}

[knave]

{no - you haven't done the doubles, because you decided to do the doubles as a group}

Chrome Prime: Underground Time

Talvin, Taka, Tiger and a burdened, but excited Roosevelt Harker regrouped at the crystal cavern. Just as they checking their weaponry and preparing to leave, Talvin stops and closes his eyes.

In his mind he senses a ripple in the river of Psi. Two more Chromatics are entering the area from below, while at the same time the two sets of two are both moving... moving toward the guardroom.

[ezekiel]

Talvin stops midstep like with the grace of a cat who just noticed something odd

"They're moving...they're going towards the guard room. Harker! Check on the doubles, do they seem in a hurry or overly cautious? It could be a guard change...Two others are coming from below...If we move now we can perhaps get one of the doubles before they reach the guard room. Both if we split up... - Talvin looks at Taka - Your call."

[ProfPotts]

Once he's got his prisoner & Ms Hsu inside, Hastings goes over to examine the female aberrant. He makes an effort to keep his thoughts in line with his words [spend as much Willpower as is needed to not be mind-read]. Shaking his head he sub-vocalises a command to Tink to give him a HUD visual dislay of all the other equipment dumps. Turning to the male aberrant he says in a low voice,

"I'm not going to lie to you, it's pretty bad. There's a slim chance we can help her, but for that we'll need some supplies from one of our other dumps - the equipment we have here will have minimal effect in treating an ab... er... one of your kind. It's not safe to move her."

Lost in thought for a moment, he then looks the male aberrant straight in the eyes, & says with utmost seriousness,

"Look, it's a hostile place out there, & my team is wounded & tired. You're obviously much faster than any of us, & much more likely to survive. Her best chance is for you to go & get the supplies, whilst we remain here & do what we can to stabilize her condition. I would suggest, though, that if you have any sort of telepathic link with your wife that you turn it off. We've encountered powerful creatures here, that have highly developed psychic abilities - they could trace any such link back here with more ease than even we found you."

The Englishman shakes his head,

"Normally you'd be the enemy, but right now it looks like we have a common enemy, & that makes us allies. For the sake of both your people & mine we have to work together on this. Now, I suggest you get going."

Hastings then gives the aberrant the location of the equipment dump the furthest away from their current location.

Presuming the guy agrees & goes...

When the aberrant leaves, Hastings goes back to the female aberrant, takes out a vibro-knife, & jams it hard under her chin & up into her brain (aiming for her node). He tries to make the kill as clean as possible. He then whispers orders to Daniel,

"Okay, time to prove yourself useful Daniel. First, keep a psychic eye out for that guy's return. Second, I need you to wire the female's body with as much explosives as you can muster & booby-trap it to go off if disturbed in any way. Hopefully that'll be enough to take him out when he gets back. I'll pack up this survival kit. If you can wake Ms Hsu, then do so, otherwise we're going to be pretty burdened when we get out of here. You also need to find a cave or other defensible shelter in the area where we can move this stuff. Now get moving."

Hastings then moves to pack up the kit, asking Tink to also work on locating a suitable shelter site nearby.

[Archer21]

Talvin stops midstep like with the grace of a cat who just noticed something odd

"They're moving...they're going towards the guard room. Harker! Check on the doubles, do they seem in a hurry or overly cautious? It could be a guard change...Two others are coming from below...If we move now we can perhaps get one of the doubles before they reach the guard room. Both if we split up... - Talvin looks at Taka - Your call."

Responding immediately, Harker sends his senses outwards, checking on the pair of guards he saw earlier.

[knave]

Chrome Prime: Guards

The chromies in the rooms and the set coming from below are all wearing weapons and combat webbing, but seem to be walking rather than running. Additionally, the chromatics in the guard room appear to have ended their game and are in the process of attaching their weapons to their harnesses.

[Umoja]

Daniel nods, trying to multitask as he sends his sense out after the Abberant. He quickly grabs some gulp, fumbling a bit, because of the sensory confusion. He puts it into his backpack. Before he adresses what Hastings said.

When the aberrant leaves, Hastings goes back to the female aberrant, takes out a vibro-knife, & jams it hard under her chin & up into her brain (aiming for her node). He tries to make the kill as clean as possible. He then whispers orders to Daniel,

"Okay, time to prove yourself useful Daniel. First, keep a psychic eye out for that guy's return. Second, I need you to wire the female's body with as much explosives as you can muster & booby-trap it to go off if disturbed in any way. Hopefully that'll be enough to take him out when he gets back. I'll pack up this survival kit. If you can wake Ms Hsu, then do so, otherwise we're going to be pretty burdened when we get out of here. You also need to find a cave or other defensible shelter in the area where we can move this stuff. Now get moving."

He looks in shock at the carnage, he tried not to adress it at first. "That was pointless. This shelter could have proven useful...." He reaches into his backpack, and pulls out a chunk of plastique and a remote detonator. He pushes open the dead abberants robe, and starts to set the explosive on her abomen or whatever passes for one on her/it. "See, this is why humans and abberants are destined for war. I'm sure these people meant us no direct harm.... They could have helped us. But no. We needed to make an example of a dying Abberant. Beautiful." Daniel finishes setting the explosive, and sticks a remote detonator into it. He makes sure it's on, and then covers the explosive back up with her robe.

Daniel looks around the room for anything else combustible, but gives up. He grabs some metallic things from numerous med kits and makes sure to add it to the plastic explosive on the abberants stomach. "Hopefully this'll add an extra kick, and if your lucky, it'll kill the damn thing, or at least make it weak enough to shoot." Daniel picks up his screamer, and puts it into his holster.

[phoenix]

"They're moving...they're going towards the guard room. Harker! Check on the doubles, do they seem in a hurry or overly cautious? It could be a guard change...Two others are coming from below...If we move now we can perhaps get one of the doubles before they reach the guard room. Both if we split up... - Talvin looks at Taka - Your call."

Taka nods calmly. "Tiger, Roosevelt - can you two handle a double?

"What about the ones in the guard room? Are they getting ready to leave? If so, we should kill them now as a group before the others come."

[Archer21]

The chromies in the rooms and the set coming from below are all wearing weapons and combat webbing, but seem to be walking rather than running. Additionally, the chromatics in the guard room appear to have ended their game and are in the process of attaching their weapons to their harnesses.

Senses returning to this room, Harker looks at the others and nods. "It just looks like a changing of the guard. They don't seem to be expecting trouble."

"Tiger, Roosevelt - can you two handle a double?

"What about the ones in the guard room? Are they getting ready to leave? If so, we should kill them now as a group before the others come."

"The ones in the guard room are picking up their weapons, looks like they're getting ready to be relieved. I don't think they're leaving till the others get there. As far as handling a double, yes, I think we can handle it. Tiger?"

[ezekiel]

"What about the two coming from below? If they find a corpse an alarm is bound to sound...perhaps we can ambush the two from below then take out the three from the guard room after they've left. That'll leave four at the guard room...from below...Harker, check them well, they could be the "dark ones" in "black war" against the chromatics..."

[ProfPotts]

"See, this is why humans and abberants are destined for war. I'm sure these people meant us no direct harm.... They could have helped us. But no. We needed to make an example of a dying Abberant. Beautiful."

[Presuming that his plan actually worked... Which is pretty big assumption, I know ::wink ]

Hastings continues to pack up the portable shelter & heating gear as he whispers his answer,

"We're hardly doing this to make examples, man - we're following orders & killing the enemy. You want to change military policy then please, be my guest, run for office, or form a protest commitee, or join a cult. Whatever you do, just leave it until after the mission is over, okay?" ::rolleyes

[knave]

{ ::biggrin - hold your horses please, ladies }

Chrome Prime: Lies to the Damned

Steeling his mind...

"I'm not going to lie to you, it's pretty bad. There's a slim chance we can help her, but for that we'll need some supplies from one of our other dumps - the equipment we have here will have minimal effect in treating an ab... er... one of your kind. It's not safe to move her."

Lost in thought for a moment, he then looks the male aberrant straight in the eyes, & says with utmost seriousness,

"Look, it's a hostile place out there, & my team is wounded & tired. You're obviously much faster than any of us, & much more likely to survive. Her best chance is for you to go & get the supplies, whilst we remain here & do what we can to stabilize her condition. I would suggest, though, that if you have any sort of telepathic link with your wife that you turn it off. We've encountered powerful creatures here, that have highly developed psychic abilities - they could trace any such link back here with more ease than even we found you."

The Englishman shakes his head,

"Normally you'd be the enemy, but right now it looks like we have a common enemy, & that makes us allies. For the sake of both your people & mine we have to work together on this. Now, I suggest you get going."

Hastings then gives the aberrant the location of the equipment dump the furthest away from their current location.

The tall aberrant seems to be buying all this, particularly when Tink projects a holo terrain map of the target dump (which she presumably got earlier from the satellite). He nods at Hastings, walks across to the doorway and picks up his weapon, then pauses and turns back. "Thank you," he says with a grateful expression, "My name is Thom by the way. Thom O'Brien. My wife is Lilith. If she wakes while I'm gone, tell her... Tell her I love her."

For just a moment Thom's mental image of the woman in the bioshelter floats before Daniel... Perfectly human and utterly beautful... emotion radiates from the image.

Thom turns and vanishes in a cloud of dust.

Daniel realises that the wetness on his cheeks are from his own tears.

[knave]

Chrome Prime: Guards

{The creatures coming from below seem to Harker to be pretty much the same as any of the others}

[ProfPotts]

Hastings proceeds with the plan as outlined above.

[Umoja]

Daniel wipes the tear of his cheek. He looks at Hastings and checks the remote control for the detonator. It's not on currently, but he just looks at it and sniffles. "All the Earth is but one nation, and mankind it's citizens." Daniel mumbles to himself, the sayings of Baha'u'llah always gave him solace as any Baha'i would know.

"How could you just... Hastings... I mean... But look, we both had a common problem. Besides, this guy was only watching after his wife... I didn't sign on to be responsible for murdering love. Regardless," He wipes the remainder of his tears away. "This just made him hostile no matter what. I just hope, that your plan kills him, so I can get back to Earth."

[Asbjørn]

"Tiger, Roosevelt - can you two handle a double?

"What about the ones in the guard room? Are they getting ready to leave? If so, we should kill them now as a group before the others come."

"The ones in the guard room are picking up their weapons, looks like they're getting ready to be relieved. I don't think they're leaving till the others get there. As far as handling a double, yes, I think we can handle it. Tiger?"

Looking like he's done nothing but kill chromatics all his life, Tiger just nods at Harker's repeating of the question.

"Sure. But I think we should move on the guard room instead. Chances are we're gonna end up losing our element of surprise if we don't, and I kinda doubt we're gonna be able to play this quietly much longer."

Brushing off some blood from a claw he cut off the last chromie he and Harker killed before he puts it in a pouch on his belt, he looks to Taka and adds

"I think we should stay together and move fast. Silent if possible, but when the sh!t hits the fan and one of them sounds the alarm we should be watching each other's backs and not be sneaking around in pairs. Just my opinion, Sir."

[by the way: One of Tiger's beltpouches now contain one claw or similar trophy from each chromie he's killed and had time to cut it off of.]

[phoenix]

"The ones in the guard room are picking up their weapons, looks like they're getting ready to be relieved. I don't think they're leaving till the others get there. As far as handling a double, yes, I think we can handle it. Tiger?"

"Sure. But I think we should move on the guard room instead. Chances are we're gonna end up losing our element of surprise if we don't, and I kinda doubt we're gonna be able to play this quietly much longer."

Taka nods, sparing a bemused look at Tiger's "trophy". "Good. No, I'd rather not take on the n in the guard room if they have a chance at backup, and the approaching pairs would definitely notice. The guard room can wait.

"No time. Go."

Barring urgent objections or questions, Taka starts on the corridor to his and Talvin's pair, speeding up (though not at the cost of noise) once Talvin joins him.

[so how many are in the guard room now? I've heard 3, 4, and 5 at various times.]

[ezekiel]

Talvin nods and leads Taka to an intersection the couple is bound to cross, the perfect ambush site. Closing his eyes a second he then looks up at Taka, whispering

"Dey will pass closer to this side of the corridor, wait here. I will be on the other side and will try to tranquilize de one closer to my side. At the very least it will slow him down until you take him."

Talvin crosses the corridor and motions with his lips 'One minute' (until they arrive) while readying his tranq gun and checking on a bulky pistol in his shoulder holster...

5 in the guard room, 2 doubles starting to move towards it and one double behind us...

[phoenix]

"Dey will pass closer to this side of the corridor, wait here. I will be on the other side and will try to tranquilize de one closer to my side. At the very least it will slow him down until you take him."

Taka nods, not bothering to add, "Be sure you don't hit me."

On his side of the corridor, he draws both his vibroblades, preparing to carve twin vicious arcs through the shoulders and torsoes of the oncoming enemies. He'll target the one closer him if he has to choose.

[Asbjørn]

Taka nods, sparing a bemused look at Tiger's "trophy". "Good. No, I'd rather not take on the 5 in the guard room if they have a chance at backup, and the approaching pairs would definitely notice. The guard room can wait.

"No time. Go."

Tiger nods once before he turns to leave with Harker. With a questioning look at his backback he asks

"Er... Maybe you should dump that here and pick it up on our way out? You're never gonna be able to outrun a chromie anyway, but there's no point in being slower than you have to, right?"

As they both start to move down the tunnel Tiger lets Harker take the lead, or at least guide him along. A short while after they leave the others he asks

"How far apart are these f*ckers, anyway? If one of them barks, will the others come running? You'll know, right? No point in playing it sneaky if they're already on to us..." ::sly

[knave]

Chrome Prime: The Evil Men Do

When the aberrant leaves, Hastings goes back to the female aberrant, takes out a vibro-knife, & jams it hard under her chin & up into her brain (aiming for her node). He tries to make the kill as clean as possible.

The comatose aberrant’s jaw clenches as the blade slides easily through her soft flesh. Robert pulls his weapon free and steps away before the creature’s death-rattle spasms can begin.

"Okay, time to prove yourself useful Daniel. First, keep a psychic eye out for that guy's return. Second, I need you to wire the female's body with as much explosives as you can muster & booby-trap it to go off if disturbed in any way. Hopefully that'll be enough to take him out when he gets back. I'll pack up this survival kit. If you can wake Ms Hsu, then do so, otherwise we're going to be pretty burdened when we get out of here. You also need to find a cave or other defensible shelter in the area where we can move this stuff. Now get moving.."

Daniel wipes the tear of his cheek.  He looks at Hastings and checks the remote control for the detonator.  It's not on currently, but he just looks at it and sniffles.  "All the Earth is but one nation, and mankind it's citizens." Daniel mumbles to himself, the sayings of Baha'u'llah always gave him solace as any Baha'i would know.

"How could you just... Hastings... I mean... But look, we both had a common problem.  Besides, this guy was only watching after his wife... I didn't sign on to be responsible for murdering love.  Regardless," He wipes the remainder of his tears away.  "This just made him hostile no matter what.  I just hope, that your plan kills him, so I can get back to Earth."

As Hastings starts gathering up the portable equipment, he realises that there is one more thing that will need addressing before the pair leave the building. The hyperfusion reactor powering the main shelter is only slightly bigger than a large briefcase, but it is heavy enough to need a strong and unburdened man to carry on its own. Taking the reactor will mean leaving Caroline Hsu, or the Witness behind… And, while the portable chemical and bio-heaters in the equipment packs will mean an end to their immediate heat problems, exposing the hyperfusion reactor to a large explosion could have unexpected results. As a piece of military kit it is hardened and safe enough in most circumstances, but the fact that it does come with two emergency shut off switches obviously means that the possibility that something might go wrong has occurred to the designers. It will need to be moved, made safe… or rigged to detonate. Being military kit, any of these options are available to someone with a reasonably skilled technician at his disposal.

By the time Daniel is finished his work, the room is rank with the foul smell of the aberrant woman's passing.

[knave]

{Quick query for the other team

The guardroom has five chromatics in it - all getting kitted up at the moment.

The two groups of two (X, and Y) are coming from nearby rooms, while the last two 'guards' (Z) are coming up from a deeper passage.

X and Y are (at most) a minute or so worth of chromatic sprint from the guardroom, and probably less than half that from each other, while group Z is maybe five or six minutes away.

You want to split up again, fine, but who is going for which group?

}

[ProfPotts]

Realising that the group will either be off the planet fairly soon, or the whole mission will be a bust & they'll all die, Hastings decides that they don't need the hyperfusion reactor. If Daniel can rig it to blow when the aberrant corpse does, then so much the better (& he'll say as much to Daniel)- if not, then it'll just get left behind. In any case, the Englishman makes sure that both he & Daniel get everything done as quickly as is humanly (in his case at least... ::wink ) possible.

... the room is rank with the foul smell of the aberrant woman's passing.

[i guess it wasn't a clean kill after all then... ::rolleyes ]

[knave]

Talvin focuses, trying to shut out the painful headache that has been growing as his strength has faded. Sleep. That is what he needs, but he must settle for... FOCUS

...The future is salt in a wound...

Chrome Prime: Visions..

The two Chromatic guards (Z) shuffle down the corridor on a path that seems unlikely to bring them close to the crystal cavern... the vision fades as the future blurs out... it has become a focus region he realises, the group's actions will decide how things will continue... he concentrates and reaches out for the other two sets of two - they are close to the guardroom... he can sense the ripples of gunfire echoing through the tunnels... attacking them before they reach the guardroom will be extremely dangerous given the proximity.... The visions shift into reverse.... he realises that he can tell the chromatics apart. The set currently guarding now and one more, pick up their kit as they are relieved and lope off down the corridor toward the downward tunnel form which the last group (Z) are currently approaching

[Archer21]

Harker concentrates for a moment, scanning the caverns. He looks at Tiger. "Two pairs are coming from nearby rooms, they're closest. The other pair coming from below seem just like the others, nothing different about them, and they're about five minutes away. I say each pair of us takes one of the pairs from the rooms closest to us, then kill the ones coming from below, then regroup to tackle the guardroom."

[knave]

Chrome Prime: Decisions

Daniel unclips the deactivation panel on the hyperfusion generator and has a quick look at the printed circuit diagrams underneath. Daniel blinks as he realises that the intention behind the diagram is clearly to give a jarhead with basic training access to a nuke without the political consequences of such. Setting the reactor to blow will be a matter of three minutes or so with the handily supplied screwdriver and pliers inside the panel.

While deep below Sawhney, Harker and Vaughn all stand with weapons drawn and ready, Talvin and Roosevelt's eyes both gazing into the psionic distance, but still ready to act at Rochester's order.

Elsewhere:

Angus Douglas: "Jaysus! Hoo much longer arre we going t' follow this noot! 'alf hee's head's goon! I knoo what I said before, but say we take our chances with the tunnels, eh? Jaysus! I never hearrd of pooting a bloody clearbloodysentient in charrge before noo. Noo bloody wonder! Hoo long before we're dead, eh, Captain, eh? Doo yoo knoo that? Eh? Hoo long beforre we are end oop like Diana and T.S.? Eh?"

Captain Julian Kawalski: "Not...far... now... watch... out... for the human aberrants... not...far not far... then back to the School... to be betrayed... by... mother... goose... this.... way.

Frederick is silent, for now.

Further afield:

Colonel Elaine Winters groans inwardly. Speaking directly into this new chieftain's mind would be so much easier after all this practice, but experience with Vermill... STONEHAND (she corrects herself) has taught her the value of using the the Chromiecater III. "We only want our people back. The ones who attacked you before are to us like your ones from below. We fight the BLACK WAR with them. Don't you see? We are the same!"

[Umoja]

Chrome Prime: Decisions

Daniel unclips the deactivation panel on the hyperfusion generator and has a quick look at the printed circuit diagrams underneath.  Daniel blinks as he realises that the intention behind the diagram is clearly to give a jarhead with basic training access to a nuke without the political consequences of such.  Setting the reactor to blow will be a matter of three minutes or so with the handily supplied screwdriver and pliers inside the panel.

While deep below Sawhney, Harker and Vaughn all stand with weapons drawn and ready, Talvin and Roosevelt's eyes both gazing into the psionic distance, but still ready to act at Rochester's order.

,,

Daniel gasp. This could definitely put an Aberrant out of commission.... Hell this could cripple the whole planet if these savage tribal lizards don't understand how radiation works. "Hastings... tell me this. How long do you think it'll take for a ship to bring us back into orbit? Because, we have a nuclear weapon here. This Fusion reactor.... It could go nuclear if I wanted it to. Hell, you could make it go nuclear. I'll consider you the ranking one, since you have a painful gun, so what the hell should I do? I don't know where our other friends are, so do you want me to send this Aberrant and her husband back to the the Aberrant age when he comes back?" Daniel's eye seem zoned out as he talks, he's gotta check for that damn mutant coming back to soon.

[ProfPotts]

Sparing Daniel the briefest of glances as he hurries to complete his own tasks, Hastings whispers quickly,

"Yes, set it to make the biggest boom you can - there's no telling how tough or fast these aberrants can be - & we're not going to get a second chance. Don't worry about the others - I know where they are, I tagged everyone before the mission started."

[Umoja]

Daniel flinches a bit, hopefully this thing isn't going to cause some bad sort of psionic resonance, he's just being paranoid of course, not fully understanding noetics. He quickly sets the Fusion Reactor up to go nuclear, placing some sort of remote device on it if possible.

"Well, I guess if we don't mind irradiating the planet everything is set. We should probubly leave before the Aberrant returns." Daniel's voice has a tinge of fear in it.

[knave]

Chrome Prime: spiralling downward

Daniel jury-riggs a remote detonator from some of the communications equipment. The explosives now should be sufficient accelerant to upset the reactor. He calculates... About a three mile radius for the initial blast, a bit less given the surrounding terrain. The fallout should be relatively minimal... for a nuke. Five to six miles safe distance and a good decontamination should be safe.

The shummering beauty of a crisp red-gold false dawn shimmers through the planet's asteroid belt as Daniel and Hastings leave the area carrying Caroline Hsu and the still limp chromatic. Hasting notes from the bad signal from his tracer beacons that the rest of the team is deep underground and around six miles awy.

[ezekiel]

Harker concentrates for a moment, scanning the caverns. He looks at Tiger. "Two pairs are coming from nearby rooms, they're closest. The other pair coming from below seem just like the others, nothing different about them, and they're about five minutes away. I say each pair of us takes one of the pairs from the rooms closest to us, then kill the ones coming from below, then regroup to tackle the guardroom."

"No...If we attack the relief guards now, those in the guardroom will hear and we'll be facing nine chromies, I cannot tell what will happen if we attack them now...and that means our future could end there. The ones in the guardroom will head towards de tunnel the two lone chromatics are coming from. If we take those two out and wait we can ambush the relieved guards there. Let's go."

Talvin heads towards the tunnel form Z group is currently approaching...

P.S. Sorry it took so long, I thought we'd settled on attacking the four chromies...

[knave]

Chrome Prime: Endless Tunnels

The team moves quickly and stealthily, checking their weapons as they go.

They soon reach the intersection best suiting an ambush on the two guards, and hear the scratching footsteps of their their prey's clawed feet approaching., apparently unaware of their presence. Flickers of unhurried chromatic speech reflects off a wet-slick wall into the group's tunnel cause the Chromiecator III to activate and mumble to life: "Deep Children will find the meaning as they have in the past"

The two guards reach the passageway walking very nearly abreast. Chromatic surprise flares down the corridor.

[Asbjørn]

Taking no chances Tiger takes position on high ground close to the crossing tunnel, vibroblade and tranquilizer gun at the ready.

[The tranquilizers are silent, right?]

The two guards reach the passageway walking very nearly abreast.  Chromatic surprise flares down the corridor.

The moment the chromies are in sight, Tiger nails the closest one with a dart from the gun before he jumps/drops on the - hopefully - soon to be sluggish alien, swimnging the vibroblade in a wide arc aimed for the alien's neck/shoulder.

[ProfPotts]

Hastings leads the small group away from the 'blast' site as quickly as possible, making sure to keep at least some cover between them & the location of the nuke at all times (since he knows full well that even a little cover can make a nuke survivable). He'll also keep an eye out for cave systems & head into the first promising looking one he sees (since nuke blasts don't tend to penetrate solid rock very well, & neither do rads - not that the prompt radiation would be that bad, & they'll have access to Vitakinetics before the fallout starts to do them in). He may also be praying quietly in his head, but that's not something the guy's going to be sharing with Dan... ::praying

[knave]

Chrome Prime: a gully near a likely cave entrance

Full dawn sears its way over the white mountain - an iron on a creased landscape.

Hastings and Daniel's radios crackle to life.

"All teams! All teams! Tight beam upload your current locations and situations to the geosat and evacuation will procede in priority order. Repeat..."

KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

[knave]

Chrome Prime: An ambush underground - some time earlier

Tiger snatches the initiative and fires - the plastic gun hissing out its dart straight into the nearest shocked chromatic. He springs forward, vibroblade arcing outward and upward with perfect aim - catching the stupidly gawking alien at the base of what passes for its neck. The blade slices deeply across the alien's throat. Dark fluid gushes out. The blade leaves easily. The creature is dark as it falls forward onto Tiger who is forced to catch hold of it and fight as its death spasms rip at him.

[Umoja]

Daniel on the other hand, is practically whimpering out every Baha'i prayer he ever bothered to memorize, and when Daniel's life in danger he can remember just about every prayer, from every Baha'i book with perfect clarity.

"God, my God! I have set out from my home, holding fast unto the cord of Thy love, and I have committed myself wholly to Thy care and Thy protection. I entreat Thee by Thy power through which Thou didst protect Thy loved ones from the wayward and the perverse, and from every contumacious oppressor, and every wicked doer who hath strayed far from Thee, to keep me safe by Thy bounty and Thy grace. Enable me, then, to return to my home by Thy power and Thy might. Thou art, truly, the Almighty, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting." The Prayer seems to hold all the power it must have had when Baha'u'llah said it over 250 years before, despite the explosion, and it isn't until after the explosion is completely over that Daniel stops.

[ProfPotts]

Hastings tells Tink to get on the uplink & sort them a lift as he does a quick 'am I dead, & if not, then which pieces do I have left?' check. He then checks the prisoner ('cos if he's dead after all this, then it may be time to switch to 'psycho' mode ::crazy ), & tries not to think about the effects of rads on the ol' swim-team count... ::blink ::lookaround ::nervous

[ezekiel]

Tiger snatches the initiative and fires - the plastic gun hissing out its dart straight into the nearest shocked chromatic. He springs forward, vibroblade arcing outward and upward with perfect aim - catching the stupidly gawking alien at the base of what passes for its neck. The blade slices deeply across the alien's throat. Dark fluid gushes out. The blade leaves easily. The creature is dark as it falls forward onto Tiger who is forced to catch hold of it and fight as its death spasms rip at him.

Talvin shoots a dart at the remaining chromatic, hoping to distract it to allow Tiger (or someone else) to take it down.

I'll split dice pool between shooting and dodging

[Archer21]

Confident Tiger can handle himself, Harker springs towards the closest Chromatic, blades and teeth bared.