Looking over their shoulders at the computer, JD adds a"Weeeelllllll fuuuuu... that slowly devolves into a yawn. "Ugh, sorry. Onward then?"
He will move back to the door and await the rest of the crew.
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Jarix searches the body of the most-recently-killed cadet, still lodged in the automatic door between the main staging room and the mess hall. He discovers one further grenade on her belt, in addition to a holstered pulsecaster pistol and a survival knife. The cadet's riot shield lays on the floor where Verne ordered her to drop it.
Straightening up from looting the cadet's body, Jarix looks casually into the mess hall. This spacious room has four stacked and folded metal tables positioned along the south wall. Several colourful, stylised posters adorn the walls. A door lies to the west, labeled with vivid green letters, and an adjacent serving window looks into a kitchen. A door in the rounded section of the eastern wall sits next to a small electronic panel equipped with a numbered keypad, a yellow light, and a camera lens.
Jarix scoffs at the posters. "Good thing we're not natives, then."
"Command center to the left, kitchen to the west."
"The command center seems like the place to go," Verne offers, "But we'll need to be ready for a fight."
JD stands infront of the "Dominate the Weak" poster, head cocked.
At Jarix's mention of a kitchen, he steps over and pops his head and rifle barrel in. "If there's one place I'm going to find Imperial brand coffee it's here."
His hopes are low.
"Figures. Every army in human history has run on coffee, expect the squibs." JD grumbles as he finishes tossing the kitchen. "This is the longest I've gone without coffee and liquor and now I'm killing people too."
He trudges back out of the kitchen, rifle hanging loosely in one hand. His appearance aside, he's ready to move on.
"No coffee? See they're evil and uncouth. They deserve what they get." Jarix goes to the command center door. He is careful not to be in the line of fire this time and peaks in from the side.
"Oh yeah. That's right, they know we'er here. Someone bring over that guys's helmet. Let's see if that will get it open."
"Good idea" JD will scoop up the helmet and bring it to the doorway.
Mallura laughs softly as the computer shuts down and locks the crew out. "Well, my bad, folks. Guess your captain should stick to captain-ing and let you brainiacs do the technical work. Anyway..." she bends down and scoops up the cadet's pulsecaster pistol before popping out the battery and stowing it in her belt. "On we go!"
Moving into the mess, Mal sticks to the walls, keeping an eye on the command center door and checking her ammo.
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"Looks like we're not getting in easily," Verne remarks. He takes a look at the door and tries to determine how the opening mechanism works.
"If we can't figure out how to use their tech," he mutters, almost to himself, "I suppose we could blow up the door somehow? Or..." he raises he eyebrows as another idea surfaces.
"What about the kitchen?" He wonders out loud. "Do the Azlanti wire their buildings to open doors automatically in case of fire? Are the ventilation systems connected?"
"Huh" JD lets out, impressed with the idea. He begins to look along the ceiling to see if he can trace ventilation and fire suppression. "Let's hope the Azlanti are as militant with their fire code"
Mallura stands at the door way, ready to toss in an incendiary grenade once the door is opened.
JD reloads the last 6 rounds into the hunting rifle, and nods to the crew that he's ready.
Jarix is ready. He'll have his gun ready to fire at whoever is in there.
Verne casts reflecting armor on himself and readies his pistol.
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The door slides open to reveal a dimly-lit circular chamber with only a few spotlights illuminating the computer equipment that rings the walls on wide, sweeping panels of metal and plastic. The illuminated screens of the computer systems include a station that is clearly designed for weapons control. Delicate racks hanging from the ceiling contain communications equipment. A projector in the centre of the room, hanging from the ceiling, displays a holographic image of Nakondis. A door on the opposite side of the room (in the eastern wall) has green Azlanti letters printed on it.
Two roller chairs sit on opposite sides of the rounded counter ringing the room. Two Azlanti cadets perch behind the chairs, using the only possible pieces of furniture in the room for cover. They take cover immediately as the door opens, their weapons in hand.
From behind the nearest chair, an Azlanti cadet feints an attack with his pistol, then drops back into cover.
By my count, Verne, you’ve cast command twice and reflection armor once already. Do you have more than 3 level 1 spell slots per day?
Verne strides into the room . His sensors are overwhelmed by the pulse from the projector, yet he tries to take a shot at the nearest soldier.
JD steps into the room beside Verne and levels a shot at the cadet infront of him.
Seeing how tight the room is, and how far apart the cadets are spread, Mal opts to instead shake up the pink cadet with a faked grenade toss before taking cover just outside the room.
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Verne and JD flash into the room, landing shots on two separate targets. Mallura fakes a grenade toss, causing the cadet nearest the door to dive out from behind his chair. The cadet fired upon by JD takes advantage of the harrying fire provided by the flashblind projector and fires twice upon the mechanic.
One bullet whizzes wide past JD's head, but the second shot rings his dome.
Jarix runs into the middle of the room and targets red (the one still in cover, but not from Jarix)
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Jarix's sonic blast buffets the hapless cadet into the computer bank. He shakes his head and calls out to his colleague.
"အလယ်တန်းသုံးအလယ်မှာစီမံပါ!"
The other cadet whirls on Jarix to reveal a taclash in his other hand! He drops his pistol and lashes out at Jarix's rifle.
The taclash wraps around the thunderstrike rifle, but Jarix wrests it away.
Mal pokes her head around the corner and shouts into the room, "Come on, JD! Don't let these runts show you up! Keep your head up!"
She then stows her grenade, ready to draw a second weapon.
"Thanks, Cap"
JD levels his rifle and fires again at the cadet in front of them.
Verne attempts to follow up on his pistol hit by throwing a projectile at the same cadet.
Jarix takes a guarded step before firing at red at point blank.
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Jarix leaps over the taclash and brings the muzzle of his gun right up to the helmet of the doomed soldier. The sonic blast caves in both helmet and the cadet's skull, blasting his lifeless body up against the computer bulkhead.
The flashing panels on the ceiling pummel both JD and Jarix with dizzying light and sound. () The remaining cadet lashes into Jarix twice with his taclash, his blood-lust heightened by impotent rage!
The cadet continues uselessly flailing, missing Jarix twice.
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JD watches Jarix massacre the cadet he was firing on and gives him a "Well, I could have done that" before turning to fire on the remaining cadet.
He gives an exhausted "Ugh, boy" when he wings the shot wide.
Mal finally enters the room and fires her laser pistol at the remaining cadet.
"Well then do it."
Verne, having had quite enough of the flashblind projectors, tries to disable them in the midst of the chaos.
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Verne doesn't have a clue as to how to shut down the projectors, but surmises that there must be the ability to control them on one of the computer panels.
As the captain steps into the room, a disorienting blast of sound and light descends upon her. A similar effect targets the android.
Outnumbered and hemmed in on all sides, the remaining cadet jettisons finesse manoeuvres in favour of sheer force. He lashes at Mallura twice with his taclash.
The first blow lands but the second blow misses by inches. He then speaks into his helmet comm unit.
"ထိန်းချုပ်မှုစင်တာကိုစိမျ့လေးပါး။ သူတို့ဟာခွဲခြားသတ်မှတ်ထားတဲ့ရန်သူတွေပါ။ အင်ပါယာအတွက်!"
"He just told on us."
Jarix fires at him.
JD takes a step forward to line up a shot on the remaining cadet, and fires.