Marcus you are on point. Fling says as he rushes to the door to help muscle it open.
While Flint and Cole struggle with the door he calls out, "We could use a hand here."
Marcus tries to lend a hand, but there's too many people at the door.
Emilyene admires the strapping young guys working on prying the door open as she gives them a hand, one golf clap at a time.
"We just need a little more leverage," Jasmine says as she takes a strut off of a nearby table and wedges it into the gap that Ephraim has created. "And a little less gawking." She pushes against the crude lever, opening the door wide enough for the team to pass through.
Ephraim looks into the room with the lush vegetation and is filled with trepidation, I wish we didn't have to go back in there.
He hesitates and asks, "Marcus are you on point?"
"Yeah," says the security officer, rifle held to his chin as he scans for threats. "Secure the route, the vehicle and the supplies, in that order."
Emilyene looks at the dense vegetation with trepidation. She tries to hide her nervousness, poorly, as she pulls the shotgun from her pack and holds it tightly to her chest.
"Roger that," Cole responds as he removes his weapon from its holster. He looks at the weapon suspiciously what good are you against a virus?
We head towards the vehicle with some very itchy trigger fingers.
Jasmine quietly steps to the side as she enters the weird jungle lab. In theory, she knows that she should try to use the overgrown foliage for cover. Unfortunately, the tidy rows of Thoth's hydroponic farms are nothing like this, so Jasmine doesn't know how to put that theory into practice.
"I'm sure that's good news, right?" asks Marcus. "Move it, people!
He hustles along towards the vehicle.
Listening to Marcus's remarks about the crashing sounds Cole mockingly agrees,Yep, sounds real promising." He hurriedly follows Marcus.
Flint moves into a position at the rear. He keeps glancing over his shoulders towards the ominous sound keeping an eye out for whatever may have been the cause of the noise.
Jasmine moves from cover to cover as she makes her way across the lab. Maybe she'll have a chance to see whatever made that crashing sound before it notices her.
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In the quiet of the eco-dome, with only the sound of running water, the party can soon hear the rustling of vegetation and what sounds like a large number of ...people?.. coming towards them. A weezing can be heard, almost like the sound of a person who has run a far distance, only magnified ten-fold.
Bursting out of the undergrowth about 10 meters in front of you a number of figures lurch into view. Most are wearing only tatters of clothing, and some are completely naked. All seem to be freakish tall and limber, with hairless bodies and wide, unblinking eyes.
The creatures seem to stop for a split second, almost like they were sniffing the air, then as a group turn towards the party, letting out an undulating howl of pure rage. They charge.
It's just like basic, it's just like basic...
Emilyene murmers the mantra as she brings up her shotgun, closes her eyes, remembers to open them and squeezes the trigger.
Flint's eyes widened as he saw the mob of humanoids burst through the vegetation.
He quickly brought his ACR to bear on a group of targets he switched to full auto mode and fired his gun hoping his training would prove worth its scars.
After blazing away with his ACR Flint takes a few steps backwards keeping his eyes on the creatures.
Cole steps next to Emilyene calmly raises his arm straight out from his body. he sights his pistol aiming at one of the charging creatures. "Stay close," he warns Emilyene.
"Fall back! Fall back!" says Marcus, determined to be the last of the group to retreat but eager nonetheless to find better ground. "Get us to a doorway where we can hold them off!"
He brings up the muzzle of his Advanced Combat Rifle and lays down a furious field of fire.
"Any bets that the gear won't be in the supply room?" Jasmine asks. "Nothing else has gone according to plan." She pulls her snub pistol and fires at the nearest humanoid.
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Bullets fly down the pathway and slam into the oncoming humanoids, sending some reeling into one another, as others attempt to push past to get at the party. Two of the creatures seem to be down for good, with several others sporting grievous wounds that have slowed them down, but the majority are still coming at the group.
The party has retreated back to the pried open door leading into the generator room.
Emilyene has no problem shooting them as they try to squeeze through the door. She backs into the room and then stands next to the door, shotgun ready to cover the others.
Give ground back to the generator room
Flint says as he takes a few steps back through the doorway he kneels into a firing position so that the others behind him may have freedom to shoot over his head.
Hearing Flint Ephraim moves toward the Generator room. He looks behind him and yells, "Come on!"
Marcus was going to say that they should look for another route, but with Ephraim and Flint falling back to the generator room, he follows along, knowing that keeping a level head and staying together is more important than any specific plan.
Jasmine follows back with the others. "Did anyone notice another way out of there?"
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There are no doors other than the one you all came through, however you do notice a mechanic's crawlspace that looks like it leads away from the area. It is only 1 meter square, so it will be a tight fit, but you should all be able to get through.
The creatures seem to have halted outside the room, and you can hear a horrible rending and tearing sound as they seem to turn on the dead and wounded members of their own group...feeding on the still twitching corpses.
Marcus covers the door with his ACR. "There don't seem to be many options. Everyone into the crawlspace, quick!"
Jasmine slides the cover off of crawl space and climbs in. "We'll find out where this leads soon enough. Just hope we get there before the locals."
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The party all make it into the tiny tunnel and travel about 10 meters when the floor drops out to a deep chute. Far in the bottom you can see a light. At the same time, from behind you, you hear the tortured squeal of the door to the generator room being pulled apart.
The vertical shaft has a ladder bolted to one side, and soon the group is travelling down the tunnel to the bottom, where it continues on for some distance,; lights periodically lighting the area.
As the last of you gets off the ladder, the sound of the grating to the mechanic's crawlspace being torn off can be heard, followed quickly by the banging and scrambling of what you can only assume are the creatures trying to follow you. With a deafening cry from above you hear something hurtling down the shaft and before you can react, 2 of the creatures slam into the ground behind you. Both are obviously dead, but still twitch and spasam. One still wears the tattered remains of a lab coat, with an id tag still attached to the front. Above you can hear the creatures moving about and breathing heavily, but at the moment the ladder seems to have them confused.
Flint walks over to the twitching creature in the lab coat and snatches up the Id tag. He takes a look at it before handing it to Emilyene.
Do you recognize the name from any of the information in the computer?
He then turns his attention and rifle on the hole in the ceiling.
Emilyene takes the ID badge and looks at it after she looks around the space they are currently in.
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After cleaning some of the gore off it, you can see the photo of a distinguished gentleman in his middle years. The name shows as Dr. Theodor Zamwycki. The badge also seems to contain some electronics that might be used to bypass security or maybe access computer terminals. The has no meaning to you and you do not remember seeing it anywhere on the computer files you saw.
"Lets stop gawking and keep moving,"Cole encourages his companions. "Or we can wait here and pick them off as they try to make it down the ladder," he offers as he begins to walk away.
"They might be coming from more than one direction. Keep going." says Marcus, who contributes to recover their rear with his ACR.
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As the party moves around 25 meters down the tunnel, another loud bang can be heard, the what sounds like the scrambling of a large dog on a smooth surface...magnified significantly due to the confined space. Looking behind you can see that several of the creatures have made it down (one way or another) and are picking themselves up and running down the corridor after you...on all fours! The are roughly 2 abreast and 3 deep...at the moment (meaning 6 creature are coming up on you ...fast!)
You may act...and can I know where everyone is...you can only get 2 players abreast in this tight space.
Flint would have been at the opposite end as Marcus. Marcus called that he was covering the rear so Flint would have been in the front. These 6 are coming up from behind us so that would flip orientation and Marcus would be in the front lines and Flint in the rear.
"Blast them Marcus," Cole yells as he steps forward aiming his snub gun at the approaching hoard.