"Everyone gets one mistake per mission Trooper Olways, but only one, keep that in mind."
As before, the Sergeants back is turned, and his voice gives nothing away, making the statement potentially humorous.
"Fine work medic Tivnan, I can see you're going to be an asset.
What's your best estimation before she is ready to move again?"
"Keep working trooper Notch, it doesn't look like we're going anywhere for at least a little while longer."
"Everyone else, keep a sharp lookout, if something ugly shows it's face, I want it turned to the consistency of a standard guard ration before it can realize we're not rats, got it?!"
With a hasty movement, Notch slams the twirled cable against the power cells outlet and let's the contraption fall while throwing his hands away - clearly fearing another fierce electroshock from the angered machine spirits despite his nearly-optimistic report from before.
But nothing happens.
Well nothing is probably incorrect.
Notch isn't shotcutted again.
And the machine gives off a very faint whirring and clicking.
After several seconds a green monitor jitter to life.
It reads:
ERROR: CANNOT CONNECT TO MAINFRAME.
REROUTING....
REROUTING....
ERROR: CANNOT REACH BACKUP SYSTEM.
ENABLE TEMPORARY LOCAL SERVICE...
ENABLED.
SENDING MAINTENANCE REQUEST...
FAILED.
****
**** TRAVELOR(S): PRAISE THE OMNISSIAH ****
****
ENTER NUMBER OF TRAVELERS: .......
Notch shouts a cry of relief and joy.
"Oii, Sarge, I got it.
Emperor-yeah, I got it working!"
"Good work, enter our numbers then, and if that's not enough, we got that ticket or what not to help us along.
Either way, we should try and get out of here fast, no telling what heard that bang before."
Krish walks over to the Sergeant where he can speak softly and, perhaps, not be overheard, "Sir, if you wish I can attempt to heal the squad somewhat. A technique I learned at the Scholastica will allow me to do this. It is not much, and I can only do this once or twice a day, but it is there."
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"Thank you Sarge. Monia is a great help when she's not causing weird voices to promise you totaly unrealistic stuff. 10 Minutes before Meg can move on her own but I'm pretty sure we can ask Thud to carry her SUPER gently so she won't have any broken bones from the experience. After that make sure to keep her on the outside of the group and have someone keep an eye on her lasgun that it's always pointed outwards. For an hour or so."
Turning to the group she ask loudly: "Anyone else before I pack this stuff away?"
Cormaeg nods at Krish at he makes his "report".
"Understood, but we'll keep that in reserve, for now we don't want to risk more warp spawns noticing us."
"None more at the moment medic Tivnan.
We don't want to stay here longer than needed, you can look over the rest of us once we are safely boarded."
"Aye. Gonna pack, just a moment" and with that she does just that
Monia helps Leni with packing her equipment back up; it was the least she could do since the majority of her work came by way of Psychically Cauterizing wounds.
The grenade had caught her off guard, however, and she was silently disappointed that neither her nor the newcomer Krish had noticed the thing properly until it was too late; their hearing having been fine tuned after years of training within the Schola.
"Just because the warp is fickle does not mean that I intentionally cause auditory hallucinations to assail us when it bucks from my grasp, I will have you know!" she responds to the Medics comment in a feigned huff.
Once done she brushes her now-dusted armour as she stands, thankful that their Guard Flak provided extra protection against explosions such as this.
Typing in the number of potential passengers (14) the machine hums audibly and faint whirring can be heard, then a new line appears on the failing screen.
REQUESTED PAYMENT: 28 Thrones
PAYMENT METHOD: IMMEDIATE, PHYSICAL-ONLY (COINS)
Krish steps forward holding the scrap of paper out to Cormaeg, "Sir, perhaps this is a fare coupon? It might be useful just now."
Cormaeg's lips momentarily quirks upwards, but is gone so quickly that it might have been a smile, a smirk or just a trick of the light.
"Ah yes, the ticket I just mentioned might have been useful. Seems it might indeed be useful."
"We'll, assuming we got enough for us all, here goes nothing..."
After feeding the machine with several hands of coins, it ejects a long stream of papers similar to that one Krish had found.
When presented to the Servitor with the glowing eye, it opens the blasted door with a long squealing sound.
As soon as one walked through, the door shuts with a snapping sound that tells of way too much force for comfort.
A wry smile twists one corner of Krish's mouth, "This one sir?"
Leni will stay in the center, where it should be safest. But she eyes the machine suspiciously after that first semi malfunction and, on her turn, waits for the door to open with tense legs. As soon as it is fully open she does a little jump to get through the middle of the door spending as little time in between it as possible.
"...I somehow feel like the munitorum won't be paying us back for that."
Lenis mistrust in the system is met with a self-fulfilling-prophecy as the entry-controlling doors start to slam shut way early as her turn came.
Despite her little jump, the doors catch her leg and close shut with bone crunching force!
Impact damage (Pen:0), left leg
Leni feels herself pushed from behind, which causes her 'little jump' to grow into a 'long jump with uncontrolled landing'.
She is halfway to fly into an angry tirade (before even crashing to the ground mind you) as the twitchy door crashes shut.
That could have been it for her leg - or better part of the body, really.
Muffled shouts from the other side carry Yuris voice.
"Ye gud, medic?
Sorry for ze push but da eye of ze Servitor just went out and I thought it no gud."
Indeed now that you pay attention, the low whirring and clicking sound of the moving servitor has finally faded.
From this side, you have a much better view on the machinery.
It seems like the lower half of the servitor (not visible from the other side) is connected to some kind of wheel which extrudes from the door mechanism.
It really looks as if the Servitor is riding on a one-wheel - but for the fact that it has no legs and the wheel has no pedals.
You would guess that the servitor somehow moved the wheel which in turn opens the door.
Hey! Looks like we got the mechanism! Thud, get over here! Notch calls. He points to the wheel below the now-broken servitor and says, Let's give that a turn and see what happens!
- That's 8 DoS, folks!
Thud does not let the fact that the servitor is kinda hardwired to the wheel hinder him.
After a chilling crunching sound of loosening metal the wheel starts to turn under the bulging muscles of the Ogryn and the door snaps open.
Its tasking to keep it open, but as those on the other side understand what is happening they hurry through the now open door.
Once everyone is clear, Thud steps back and the door snaps shut with a terrible force that makes clear how much muscle the Ogryn just put into that thing...
Krish rushes through last of all, grateful that the Ogryn was there to re-open the door. Doubly cursing himself for lack of vigilance now on two occasions, Krish promises himself that he will not fail again. He looks up at the massive Ogryn, "Thank you, Thud. Your strength serves the Emperor well."
The grin he receives in responce is equal parts terrifying and enthusiastic. Thud's dental state is beyond bad, but it doesn't seem to bother him as he grins his broken grin at the psyker.
"Hmm, well, that was an adventure, wasn't it?
You good there Medic Tivnan?"
Cormaeg walks over to the now closed door and raps his knuckles against it.
"It won't hold anything sufficiently determined to get through back for long, but I'll take any barrier between us and any hostile pursuers gladly."
Leni is still grumbling, just not loud enough for others to make out what she's saying anymore.
Hearing her name shakes her from the grumble shock and her eyes jerk upwards, looking first at Sarge then at Thudd
"Aye, Sarge. And Thanks Big'un, you really saved my ass there. But I'll be damned if that stupid thing did that randomly. Going for the team medic is a damn intelligent thing to do just because of a malfunction. Can we really not say that stupid name a few more times and kill it some more just to be sure its not fracking with stuff trying to kill us from beyond?"
After the troublesome break at the taxation station, the squad follows another flight of stairs down - this one is thankfully short.
The stairs open up for a large, deserted platform.
You are thankful for the prey-sense goggles as they warn you early of the abrupt end of the platform after ten meter dropping down five or six meter onto a collection of iron rails with a complex set of big, slowly grinding gears.
At the wall, just beside the staircase, a wittered and torn paper shows a part of a mind-boggling network of coloured lines, interconnecting different-sized dots with attached, tiny scripture, likely indicating names of various stations.
Ralph scratches his chin with in a way very similar too Coramaeg and says:
"Hmmm, as far as I remember, we need to take the Ultramar-Line.
Then change to the Imperial-Line after three ... no four stations - forgot the name though. That should carry us right to the administratum complex.
That is ... if the tubes are still working of course."
"The emperor provides..." Cormaeg smacks a hand against the las rifle haging from his back.
"He provides us with a chance to serve, the rest is up to us. Now let's find that line and get going."
After a moment of though he turns to the others.
"Keep good fire discipline here, we DON'T want to make any unnecessary noise, and the closer we get to the administratum complex, the higher the chance we run into more civilians.
I don't want any civilian causalities because someone had an itch trigger finger."
"As before, you are with me Thud, we'll lead from the front."
Thud brings his shield to hand and nods. Notch checks his flamer for the third time and signals their readiness.
Krish waits until all the rest are moving, then brings up the rear.
Simmins is with Krish.
Monia buddies up with Leni in the middle-ish of the group as they advance forward.
"Hmmph...
It is a damn shame we did not know ahead of time we were going to go into tunnels.
I'd have tried to rec some flamers for the whole squad..."
"Oh thank the EMPEROR you didn't. Ever wonder why like half of my skin is still a little white-ish? That's from the last time our Sarge had a bright idea with a dose of flamer in it. Back then we got pretty lucky so I still got to patch squad back up, but that was by a hairs breath. No patching back up if the squad explodes. And flamers seem to cause that."
"Hmmph, sounds like your old Sergeant might have been a bit of a muscle head.
Still, learning by doing, and pain is truly the greatest teacher."
Ralph looks around, a single on-and-off glow-globe under the ceiling barely enough to lit half of the wait area.
"Once, one unit passed every ten minutes.
Three different lines passed through this node.
The units of the Ultramar line were purple, or black?
No... I think ... some sort of dark blue."
You notice a change in the ambient sound emitted by the turning cogs and a very faint metallic sound like metal rubbing over metal coming from the right tunnel.
- Nope
Thud takes to patrolling the edge of the platform. What he wouldn't give for a fight right now! This walk through hell was stretching on and on! Would it ever stop! What if it didn't! What if he never saw the sun again! Or felt the Snow-That-Falls-Slowly-At-Midnight again!
No! Must not fear! Must protect baby human! Must protect Squad! Light in darkness! EMPRAH PROTEKS!
Notch does his best to keep the Ogryn calm, but it's not an easy task. He mainly keeps telling Thud to protect things like the wounded boy, the wounded PDF, the squad, ... he's kinda running out of inspirational things to tell Thud to protect, actually.
Krish stands quietly, using an old trick he learned at the Scholatica Psykana to keep himself calm as he extends his senses to feel the warp currents in this place.
"Well, we'll just have to look for dark blue then."
Maggy, now mostly concious but still quite high on painkillers makes a snarky remark at your situation.
"Weeel, as if .... trains still run on ssssschedule after all this timesies.
Guesssss, biggy has tu curry me awesome moar, eh?
At least tunnelssss are big 'nuff fffffer him thisssss time.
Hey Ralph ... Which way to the ... thingy we search.
Left ur rightsy?"
"Oooor maybe I need to take care of you some more. Don't Remember that b!#~~y part before you cuddled with that nade.
Anyway I think the color you're looking for is ultramarine blue. Like Ultramar. Just longer. Tsk. Never ask men about colors. Stops at 'blue' or 'red'. Every. Single. Time.
Sooooo DOES that train still run? Walking in there to start running away from a train would be... unpleasant. I kinda like my shape. Not that it's possible to be 'petite' or 'slender' when military trained but I do prefer 'humanoid' over 'pancake-y'"
Thud stops in his tracks at "Pancake-y". Pancake? I likes them with da buddered pee nut. No idea why pee so good. Or how pee make nuts, but is tasty yummmm!
Notch breathes a sigh of relief. Finally, a distraction.
"Errrr, now that's an interesting thought. We SHOULD talk about that some more when we get time off, Big'un. Just remember it IS only the nuts that are good. Don't try anything else. Or the nuts THEN made into something else. But not the... base product."
You wait for five minutes, without any sign of a train coming with us idle talk and playing distract-the-frightened-Ogryn.
"Well medic Tivnan, we cannot all be familiar with lime, aqua, fuchsia, burned umber and cyan.
But knowing the name of the color is not much use without a reference point in either case." Once again the Sergeants voice and face gives nothing away, except perhaps the tiniest tug at the corner of his mouth.
"Either way, the question if the train runs is more important. If they are, we need to make sure they can still stop where we need to end our journey before we get on."
Thud stares at Leni. You tried it?!
Amused, Krish watches the banter between the others with a small smile on his face, happy to see their spirits up despite the horror of the earlier encounters. After a time he reaches out with his senses once more to see if they are still safe...
Still weary from her previous SNAFU when harnessing the warp, Monia's attention is mainly focused inwards on herself, on recuperating and refortifying her will. It was no easy task, meditating on the move and it definitely made the process difficult but, there was a good bunch of them and she had faith that they were capable enough to find a colored marker to lead them to their destination.
"Err, no Thud. Knowing that is a doctor thing. Just trust me, kay?
And Sarge at least you heard those names, that's one step into the direction of the multi colored light. I'll see if we can get you a chart next time off. A studious upright person like you should be able to learn this in a flash!"
The grin and twinkle in her eyes show an mischivous amousment - she might just actually do that!
"As for the train... I wouldn't actually go anywhere in there until I KNOW the train's not coming to flatten us. But I can say that because I don't have the burden of command. Doubt those hire ups would be happy with Sarge if we do that. Happy picnic time in the not so illuminated places. Well at least we should check somehow if there is still power on those rail things. If not then it IS fairly certain that the train's not coming."