The march to the cave was very uneventful and quiet. It would only take a couple minutes with your pace to reach the cave, though it was evident this cave was dug out by the scientist crew that came, as some machinery remained just inside a large cavern that was dug out to just place the equipment for now. Most of the equipment seemed too much for that one ship to carry.
The inside of the cavern was rather uninteresting or unique, just simple excavation operations. As you dove further, a tunnel began to lead deeper down into the moon. You would travel at least twenty-five minutes before reaching the end. The tunnel had abruptly ended to a door made a blueish metal. The door completely sealed and locked. There was what appeared to be equipment left on the right that hijacked into the door. A little red light flashed on the equipment signalling that connection was lost.
The door itself was in a diamond shape, with its door inset inside of the frame that held it. What you could see of the structure showed that this existed here long before the science team. It became apparent at that moment that this, could be a gold mine of technology and wealth. Ancient precursor technology was in high demand and it was always being reverse engineered to push scientific progress even further.
Bishop becomes noticeably anxious once the group enters the tunnel with the open sky denied to him. He stays towards the back while they move but once they approach the huge door, he steps forward and puts a curious hand on the blue metal of it's frame, inspecting it and wondering at it's creation.
The surface is smooth to the touch, and surprisingly cool, as you could feel your suits temperature noticeable dip at the finger tips. A fine dust apparently covered the metal, as your fingers left streaks. It was easy to tell that whatever material it was, it was somehow extracted from the moon. Possible valuable materials hidden deep below? Though it was hard to tell much else of the material except that on closer inspection it seemed to have a slight translucency to it, revealing a myriad of veins coursing through the material.
Bishop's eyes widen upon noticing the veins running though he door frame. A metal door with some sort of circulation system? Perhaps a living organism of some sort? He leans in closer and tries peering into the translucent material further, searching for other signs of life and comparing it to other alien life forms he has encountered.
Tujon points at the Dorr, then at the machine... Then he waits. The lack of comms annoyed him, how was he supposed to show his magnanimous goodwill and faith in his team if he couldn't bark orders at them?
From just a observational view and not being able to extract the metal for closer study and the lack of inactivity in the material makes it incredibly hard to compare it with anything or study it further, though the network seemed very similar to blood vessel network or a nerve pathway.
Molly waves at Caleb and Cane, pointing towards the computer console having lost its connections. "They sure don't make power supplies like they used to back in the day. And for good reason, plasma burns and radiation poisoning ain't pretty...", she mutters, as she sets down to inspect the console. Popping open a side panel with her screwdriver, she pokes inside to look at the innards of the console. As her lips move quietly, less-than-gentle words are mercifully stopped by the lack of atmosphere as she sits down and pulls open an engineering kit.
Why can't anything be easy., she thinks, reactively reaching towards her helmet to wipe her brow, then realises she has a helmet. Or, the easy part comes from the fact I can actually do something, rather than sit around looking scaly like our dear captain., she throws a glance at the vesk.
Bishop ceases the examination of the door frame and watches his comrades, waiting for them to gain access to the door's controls.
Leaning down next to Molly, Caleb nods at her before turning to look at the open console, examining it intently. Although he does not seem to actually do anything, nevertheless a HUD that only he -and Lena- can see appears in his field of vision, as numbers and symbols come and go and certain wires and connections are highlighted and then discarded as options. Finally, he points at one of the connections and the somewhat obvious, if minimal, damage it seems to have sustained. At least minimal at first glance.
It appeared that the terminal almost was fine, but there was a wire connection Caleb pointed out along with several scorch marks among many other connections that Molly could see deeper into the device. It appeared that the machine lost its connection and power to the door. A simple rewire would fix the issue, at least temporarily. Hopefully long enough to make it back out with the science team.
The light would go to a steady green as you can almost see the energy course through the connection. The material the door was made out of seemed to begin to glow dully as the vein networks coursed with a soft teal light before the door itself opened up. Only a couple feet away was another door. It appeared to be some sort of atmosphere cycling chamber.
When entering the chamber, the door behind would close and an atmosphere cycle would initiate along with what appeared to be some sort of decontamination rinse with a field of teal slowly rising from the floor. It appeared to not harm you or your equipment. Your suits would suddenly begin reading breathable atmosphere and if anyone checked their comms, it appeared to be working now, the static gone once you were in the building.
The door would open and reveal a cavernous room that seemed to open up into the depths of the moon, dull white lights showed a trail where the science team went. Everything seemed to be quiet for now, only a distant sound of something thumping. The trail of lights would lead down one of the many hallways, though at least the science team had the sense of leaving a trail to follow in what appeared to be a complex that could span the entire moon, as if the main chamber would show, there was no visible end to the other side of the room, it just continued.
There appeared to be several equipment stations that the scientist had set up with the dull environment lights only illuminating so much.
"Well, there's your problem...", mutters out Molly as Caleb points out the flaw, giving the android a thumbs-up. Should be an easy enough fix. Unless the main power conduit's corroded and I electricute us both to death. Fifty-fifty. Reaching into the wires, she looks at her toolkit, taking out a wiring kit, and then disappears halfway into the console, only to reappear a second later. Pointing at the screen, she looks at Caleb and pulls on her jumpsuit, suggesting the android check the interface at the user's end and tell her if she's done her job.
A minute later, she pokes out with a visible grin, as the console boots up and the door starts powering up. "Hah. Harridan: one, gunked up console: zero.", she grins, pointing towards the door and walking forwards. That's one weird door... Wonder how old that thing is. Might ask Bishop...
As the atmosphere cycles, Molly feels uneasy. What if those damn bastard who done this facility breathed acid or water..., she ponders, then the readings show the gas as normal atmosphere. Upon the reveal of the cavern, she takes off her helmet and whistles quietly. "So far, so good. You think that thumping's excavation equipment? Our busy bees would've turned that thing off, right?", she asks as she draws her pistol once more.
As the door opens, Jacob hunkers down and moves in, his rifle held up and his armor heads up display flickering with trajectories his rifle would take.
He moves into the next chamber and takes a knee, covering the rest of the group as they enter.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Bishop hops into the cavern and though his initial enthusiasm upon arriving on the planet had been dulled, his head still spins around trying to take in everything at once. Upon registering breathable atmosphere, he presses the button on his collar. The bubble of blue-green force field surrounding his head reappears briefly before flickering out.
That’s assuming they are even down here somewhere, Molly. Very strange for them to send an SOS and then hide from us in the depths of the moon. My gut tells me something went very wrong here. As he speaks, Bishop walks about 10 feet down the lighted path. Stepping past the lights leading further into the moon and off the path left for them, he peers into the darkness with the illumination behind him and not affecting his darkvision.
The cavernous room is so big that you could even see darkness at the end of your vision, even with your ability that it's quite a huge construct. Why would such a large construct be built in the first place? Who knew. But if you peered down the lighted path, you could see the lights become a little more spaced out and leads down a corridor that appeared to take a sharp turn as the lights vanish behind a wall. The thumping noise in the background had almost the same heart beat rhythm, but it was just slightly off by a second on its first beat.
Off the obvious path was mostly just structural elements, but there were a few distinct clusters of pylons that stood out upon the floor of the room only about fifty feet away. It was slightly odd, but shortly after that the floor would come to abrupt end.
Besides your voices and the ominous thumping, everything is rather sterile. Almost as if your walked into a living tomb of a planet. The whole ting was almost unnerving in all aspects. All the objects of what was left of the precursors were of the structure.
The silence held for almost several minutes if no one spoke before static erupted from the comms.
"Harbinger, Harridan, repeat, come in. Can you hear us? It's the Illicia." A short pause then the voice would repeat itself if there was no reply. Their voice sounded strained and hurried, as if they were in a tense situation.
"This does not sound good," Caleb points out, though the urgency behind the words should be clear enough to everyone. Looking around, the android takes a deep breath, or at least goes through the motions of one.
"This is the crew of the Harridan," he replies through the comms. "We copy, Ilicia. What is the matter?" Then, as if remembering he is part of a team now, one with a captain, he turns to look at the vesk, his expression mildly apologetic.
As soon as Caleb responds to the comms, the entire complex began to rumble slowly, faint glimmering lights began running through the veins of the floor and walls, softly illuminating the entire cavern in a soft teal light.
"We've encounter hostiles. We have one wounded. These things know no fear. And there are a lot of them! There are hardy. Be careful. We were ambushed. I believe Harbinger went gun heavy. Might've woken something."
A loud eerie whistle filled the entire complex. As a pulse of light suddenly shot through the veins. The entire complex would rumble again.
"What the hell?" came a females shirrens voice coming over the comms. "S%~% s$~@ s*&*! Go go go!" sounds of rifle fire came through the comms and a resounding explosion before the comms became static.
As the cavern starts shaking and lighting up, Bishop slowly backs up to the path. After the explosion and the dire communication from the Ilicia he turns to he group. There are structures off the path about 50 feet out. In light of these new circumstances, however, I suggest we make a hard push further down the tunnel. It sounds like my gut feeling that something was wrong here was correct. If the science team is even still alive we need to confirm one way or another and get out of here. His tail flicks nervously as he speaks.
Jacob nods, straightening up and glancing at the commander for a split second before giving out orders to the rest of the crew. "All right, we push forward, vanguard formation. Bishop, keep on our six with Molly. We're not stopping unless we hit the science team, we hit hostiles, or the commander orders a withdrawal." he snaps the orders off with the crisp and cool precision of a soldier who has seen the s%&~ hit the fan in a bad way before.
Jacob then raises his rifle. "You want point, sir?" he asks courteously, but urgently.
Molly grits her teeth as the other ship replies. "Things, huh...", she mutters. "It'd be great if they were a bit more specific... Should we head and get the Illicia first? Strength in numbers, after all.", she reasons as she takes a step back and sends Bishop a dry smile.
I'm still posting from my phone,but I'm keeping an eye on the game! Damn scientists, digging deeper and greedier than they should have.
Bishop still looks anxious to be moving but halts. He thinks for a moment and then shrugs. We are already here and it seems whatever life lives on this moon is preoccupied elsewhere. I say we take advantage of that and finish our mission. We can swoop around to the other points afterwards and search for the other crews..
Molly shrugs, then nods at Bishop. "Can see your point. If you're signing up for an away team, asses of people you went in to safe go before your ass.", she shrugs. "Keep an eye out for whatever the hell's out to get us, though. I don't much like my enemies fearless." Ideally, I like them a star system or so away., she continues as the party continues down the corridor.
Tujon smiles as he raises his heavy stick. "This is what we signed up for. If the enemy has a skull we shall crack it, if not... it will be all the easier to reach their vitals. Let us rescue those civilians so they can sing are praises in the halls of the honored dead. Follow me boys." And with that he is off like a bullet rushing down the tunnel, vision snapped intently forward as if chasing prey only he can see.
"He is certainly enthusiastic," Caleb remarks as he sees their vesk captain dart down the tunnel, seemingly not a care in the world other than glory and how best to gain it. "And I think the answer to your question, Jacob, is yes, he does want point," he also takes a moment to answer the soldier as he moves alongside the others down the corridor, knife and pistol still in their sheath and holster respectively.
'Things,' he ponders, 'and fearless ones at that. Creatures of some sort or something else, I wonder?'
As the crew quickly moved behind the vesk captain as he lead the way, the halls would blur past. It was actually some distance that needed to be travelled. Many halls and large rooms were passed, all looking similar but yet, just slightly enough of a difference to make each unique to a specific unknown functionality. The hallway would slowly open wider and wider, soon supporting walls faceted by large columns that stretched up into the unending ceiling.
The sprint would only take about thirty minutes of following the lights left by the research team to come upon what appeared to be the first t-section of the hallway. The lights continued off to the right but it appeared there was something else in the center of the room.
In the center of the t-section was a large pylon, this pylon was projecting many little images and heads up displays all across its surface. Four of the prominent displays had occupants, four very advanced looking automatons, their bodies were in a familiar humanoid shape, but their heads close to their bodies without necks and armored with a large upper body and thick legs. Lights were glowing from several points of their bodies and their heads. Their right arms seemed large and much more clunky than their left, which moved across the displays with unnerving accuracy. Soft chatter between the four robots could be heard, but as to what they were saying could not be understand. It only came off as clicks and bursts of noises. Whatever they were, they looked downright menacing and warlike.
They were not aware of your approach yet.
I wonder what kind of diplomacy the captain's going to use... Jacob thinks with a sigh as he gets ready for what will inevitably turn into a messy fight.
"You there, stand down and take us to your captives. If you comply I will let you live, if not... your continued existence will have no value to me." Tujon has given them the chance to admit there inferiority. The next move is there's.
Bishop’s eyes widen at Tujon’s exclamation to the mechanical beings. This guy doesn’t mess around. Nudging the captain, he whispers sideways to him. Please and thank you can get you a long way in the galaxy, sir...
Nonetheless, he readies his pistol and waits for their obvious response.
Sure. Great way to reveal our position..., sighs Molly as she looks around the area, trying to find cover of sorts. Might as well shout in the darn cavern, so everything comes our way., she thinks, aiming a gun at one of the creatures. "And what the Hells are those things...", comes out of her mouth as she takes a longer look at the creatures.
Only one of the large constructs turned its upper torso towards the group, its mandible hand continuing to effortless interact with the panel. Though it only took a mere second for a sound to emit from construct, its lights suddenly going red as it’s more heavy armored right arm lifted, its form shifting and modeling into a large cannon looking object. A sudden red flare came from the cannon as it took aim at the large vesk. The other three, continued their work on the pylon, though the one directly opposite began to raise its firearm as well.
You were locked in a room with several of your fellow scientists, all working furiously at the controls to keep control of the only door that was keeping your team alive. Those things were just on the other side, trying to force their way into the central cortex room. You were trying to monitor the situation and locate the other two teams in the facility. Two of your colleagues were wounded and were being tended to by another to the right of the room.
The room itself was lit with the soft white and blue glow of the interfaces and internal feeds. One of the other teams had triggered something and you could see the entire complex begin to awake from its slumber. Your team had no idea what the hell this structure could do but now, you all had a feeling that it was not good.
While monitoring the feeds you happen to see a notification of intruders being alerted to the system, the entire moon in fact. As you open the feed, you see from a camera angle that you were viewing the t-section with a control pylon in the middle being interacted with few constructs. Then to you relief, and dread, you see familiar species in the corridor facing the enemy.
The initial contact went south quickly and obviously so as the first one to fire took its shot at Tujon, the laser screaming across the hall towards the big brute. While the second closest one aimed its laser cannon towards Jacob, already identify the two most heavily armed opponents as it took its shot as well. The initial shot against Tujon hit his shield with a solid impact, though the protective barrier absorbed it with a ripple of blue energy, though the second shot against Jacob smashed through the protective barrier, the laser hitting him squarely against the chest with his protective armor taking the brunt of the damage.
Jacob was startled that the shot went through his defensive barriers so easily, but not really surprised. Raising his rifle, he opens fire on the enemy furthest from the team, since he expected Tujon to charge the closest one.
His first thought was the constructs had found a bypass to get around his lockout on the door, but then he saw it was something else. Movement. In another sector in the facility. And they were... What!? A vesk? Hmm. This could be my way out of here.
The white-furred ysoki began tapping away at his console, searching for someway to aid those who would be his path back to freedom.
He nibbled at his lip in frustration. Seven languages and more brains than a planet full of vesk. I can figure this out... Focus!
"So, it is war... Good." Yukon charges up attempting to draw fire upon himself.
"Ah, s&@@...", mutters Molly, mostly to herself as the pistol raises in her arm. Biting her lip, she dashes forwards. Damn thing isn't made for damn assaults in caves..., she huffs, as she ends up a step in front of the captain, leveling the handgun towards the robot already hit by Jacob. Right arm armoured. Go for joints. She sighs, squeezing one eye and pulling the trigger.
Surprisingly even for herself, the shot lands squarely where she aimed, the loud sound from the pistol echoing from the cave, the loud thud of metal against metal coming a milisecond after. "Still got it, tin can!", she grins, gripping the gun back in two hands.
At he first shot of combat, Bishop takes cover behind the biggest object in the area: Tujon. He moves forward with the vesk, laying cover fire for his meat shield. As the pair move he grumbles to the captain. I told you to say please...
"That was an... unusual approach to the situation at hand, Captain," Caleb simply states, his tone calm and the words obviously quite an understatement. 'Rush and unwise would be putting it politely,' Lena's familiar voice rings in his mind.
There is just the mere hint of a smile as the android moves forward. The situation is what it is so he may as well commit himself. A similar HUD as before appears in his field of vision and as he turns to look at one if the constructs, the second one to start raising its firearm, optimal targets on its body are selected and several attack options are presented to him.
As you poke around the system, you see several opportunities arise that you could attempt to do. You see you can send a surge of power towards the pylon and potentially cause it to overload, though you don’t know how much damage that would cause. You also see that you can attempt to silence the alarm, though it was by far past that point now and the system was already on high alert from the other teams. You do think you could attempt to override a construct, as these ones weren’t as sentient as they could be.
As the constructs began to take return fire, they began to disengage from the pylon and fully engage the oncoming enemy. Their large metal bodies moved quickly for constructs and were responding a bit unnaturally fast. A construct seemed to send a shrill tone as it got hit by several weapons fire from Jacob and Molly. It quickly moved to find itself behind cover, using the pylon to return fire from.
The other three split up and quickly moved to find similar cover, attempting to take aim at the charging Vesk as his threat level began to take priority to the closest ones. As they shot at the Vesk, the right construct gets a solid hit through his barriers and punctured the reptilians armor, leaving quite some damage. The left couldn't get a clean shot and it whizzed past the charging reptile. Bishops covering fire proving to be quite effective.
The one behind the pylon who suffered the two hits returned fire at Jacob, its focus attacked blasting through his shields as the laser burned through his shoulder armor and catching any fabric on fire. Molly was shot at as well, a single laser cut through the air and smashed through her barrier as well, catching her by surprise and hitting her square in the gut, her armoring taking most of the damage but she could feel the burn of the attack under the armor.
Though he hadn't managed to actually affect anything happening in the other room, his poking around in the computer systems had revealed some possibilities. Eyeing a particular weakness, he decided to go for broke and see if he could flip the dynamics of the battle entirely by hacking one of the constructs and turning it against its fellow automatons.
-
Jacob dives for cover, trying to put the fire out before he's fatally burned.
Molly cries out as the shot lands in her gut. That part of fighting is the one you always forget about..., she can't help but think, as she grits her teeth. Running once again towards the wall to grab cover, she raises the pistol at the enemy she hit beforehand. The bullet flies a whole foot from the robot she was aiming at, possibly hinting that the first shot was a lucky one. Poking at her wound with a wince, she begins aiming for the next shot. I sure wish I had the coilgun right about now.
This one's going to be hard! Range hits like a bastard...
As Bishop was taking the time to fire, Tujon pulled way ahead of him. After an awkward second standing unguarded in the middle of a firefight with his arms thrown over his head wildly for protection, he turns and books it back to Jacob who looked like he just took the brunt of the first attack.
Holding out a tiny hand and placing it on Jacob’s shoulder, a brilliant light shines in his eyes and the stars on his cloak shine almost as brightly.
Tujon swings in at his enemy, trying to take its head off.
archaic
Taking advantage of how the robots seem to be more focused on firing at the others, Caleb moves forward carefully, perhaps slowly but surely closing the distance in an attempt to engage one of their foes in melee and perhaps have that one not shoot at his newfound companions.
You were able to gain access to the subroutines and began making flyby edits to its baseline imperative. Most of this was either sheer luck of guesses or an unknown knowledge of alien tech, but every turn you took you were wrestling the control out of the main hive network. It was a battle of its own, keeping the construct under your control.
As the battle raged on, suddenly one of the enemies seized up, the lights flickering in a mad light show as it turned upon one of its own and charged with an audible, mechanical, screech. It’d bring both of its arms up and smash it down on the nearest enemy. The hacked enemy misses one of its strikes but the other makes a solid hit, smashing down onto the enemy. You could hear the crushing of metal and the unpleasant metal scraping metal.
The one who was attacked from its own would turn and return the favor against its once ally. One of its counter strikes landed, sending up more unpleasant metal scraping sounds as the two began to duke it out. The construct that was charged by Tujon took the hit with barely a flinch before it brought down its own two arms like clubs. One missed him by the own constructs fault, but Tujan was able to deftly dodge the other strike.
The last construct took aim at Tujon’s back, the laser rifle warming up and then firing the single shot, though Tujon’s shield absorbed it without any issue, the blue shield shimmering from the hit.
|
You, Resk, can make another computer check to do something else while the construct goes on a rampage.
Jacob pops up from cover and fires at one of the constructs that was not fighting each other.
With the continued beating on constructed foe.
With two of the robots apparently fighting each other for some reason, Caleb pauses for but a moment to assess the situation and shift his focus to another of the mechanical beings, at least for now. Then, moving a few steps forward, he puts himself before the construct and Tujonvrek and stands ready to finally contribute to the fight.