Private/Closed Rapture (From ashes we rise.)

[Nebula-Newt]

"Lift off in five people, lets get those asses in gear."

Foster turned his head towards the sound of the pilots voice calling out from the ships cockpit, waiting for her to finish before snapping the mag of his pistol into place so that he could enjoy the crisp, sharp sound of metal interlocking. So only five minutes till this motely crew set off for their first mission as a team, if indeed you could call it a team. This cyborg generally liked a little more information on the people he was working with before singing off on anything beyond the walls but he had been assured by the guy who had handed him their files that they were the best at what they did and what they did was kick ass. So there was Angelica Hope, the CQB expert and judging from her files the definition of anger problems, Isaiah Hampton also known as Quickdraw, a man who made Foster very uncomfortable due the fact that his history seemed non existent, Hyrain, a technological wizard, Jade Galatea, the icy queen of the skies and then himself, the guy who was more machine than man at this point. Whoever pulled this lot out of the trash and said this is what's going to strike fear into the hearts of the enemy might need their eyes examined.

Still as various metallic whirs and robotic beeps began to echo from the exterior of the ship they were in (a YY2 drake to be exact) Foster felt the need to say something to these people, at least attempt to make this seem more like a real P.E.S.T rather than just a couple of random fuckers thrown in a ship together. Random fuckers armed to the teeth mind you. Well he may at least go over the plan with them. Not that there was much of a plan today but it was their first mission, maybe that was for the best.

"Okay squad we all know what the plan is today correct?" Foster said in his robotically tinged voice, turning to face the crew in the back of the drake. "Just in case anybody didn't get the memo but singed up for this anyway were going to investigate a distress call that we belive is coming from salvage crew B94 who's last known position was an old nuclear plant a few clicks outside the southern border of Greenwich's walls. We are to attempt to determine the cause of what caused the team to go dark and pick up anybody who has managed not to get themselves eaten. And of course try not to get eaten ourselves."

As if it had been timed as such on purpose the engines of the drake suddenly roared to life and lifted the metal beast into the air, away from the busy hive of activity that was Greenwich's main military hanger and into the evening sky, an insignificant blot on an otherwise perfect canvas of reds, whites and blues.

(Okay now that's that out of the way I'll just make sure everybody understands what's going on here. All of our characters have just been assigned to a new supposedly elite P.E.S.T squad and have probably never met one another before. This is out first mission as a team and many people in powerful places have their eyes on our little group of misfits. Other side notes I can think of are that Angelica may have a little of shade thrown her way due to the fact she is essentially a specially bred solider of the Outlanders (Not their solider anymore anyway but eh) and it is highly unlikely that anybody has ever seen a cyborg in this group either. So without further ado lets get on with this! @Ry_Burst @Sky5372 @MegaAbsol @CrunchyCucumber )

 

[Crunchy-Cucumber]

Angelica was a little pissed that she had escaped the arms of one 'elite' killing squad and was thrown into another, but her job was to kill radioactive mutants not humans. A lesser evil, she supposed, and her first mission was a rescue mission rather than a calculated raid and slaughter quest she had once been assigned back with the Outlanders. Her helmet enclosed head glanced to the metal enclosed brute of a man next to her, having to look up to see the emotionless helmet he wore. She had of course skimmed the files she was given, only reading what she needed: Names and skills. She didn't care much to sob stories.

Now Foster seemed like a good teammate, similar to her in a way, so maybe there was a slight amount of empathy between them that would hopefully not make this random mixture of chemicals not explode within the first day. Of course, the one thing that would annoy her to the end of the world was that among this team she was around the smallest there. Standing next to metal man here, contrasting her sleek bodysuit (and, after overhearing some gossip from two random females stating how black was a naturally slimming color) she was probably smaller than she actually was.

She stood firm as the Drake lifted off from its dock, engines humming and a slight turbulence rocking the metal beast. Below them, her enhanced ears strained and heard the scrabble of metal on metal. Huh, it appeared her hound was awake. It's little robotic brain was probably having a sensory overhaul, its first mission, and if she recalled right this was around one of the only times its ever been activated since they started working on it. Behind her mask, she softened as she remembered the simple days of when she snuck out, one of the kids had a Doberman. Incredibly rare to see any animal these days, especially one not affected by radioactivity. Other that missing a leg due to cancer, a young Angelica knew she needed a dog. Good thing she had a say in the creation of her robotic partner, especially in the AI and physic department, she finally got her fucking Doberman as a final fuck you to the Outlanders.

Although, she hardly had any experience or training as a Track, despite the easy description of the job. Kill the beasties they said. It'll be a piece of cake for you they said. She would have loved to add to her weapons arsenal, but because she was already a blend of two classes there was only so much she could carry. Especially because she was much lighter and nimble than CQB standard, where they would be coated in plates of metal, enough to cause the ground to rumble around them. Although, if she wore all that, she wouldn't be able to keep up with her dog, although she probably would be harder to be carried off by a crow. Inwardly she sighed, lamenting wasn't going to do the young woman any good, she should probably concentrate on the mission at hand. Maybe introduce herself. Make some friends like that was actually a remote possibility for her.

 

[Ry_Burst]

"I was given an order to join, it's not like I had a choice," Quickdraw thought bitterly to himself, as the. Cyborg gave his speach. He was in no position to know any of these people. When given a set of files, for his teammates, he merely read the name and matched it with the face. The less he knew the better it would be. The man stood just to the left of the main group, and leaned agaist the wall, silently polishing one of his revolvers with a rag.

As the engine roared to life, he looked up around the room. Two girls, a cyborg, a man, and a robo mutt. Not really the best lineup to work with but he could make due. But in the meantime, he would just polish this gun.

 

[MegaAbsol]

Jade sighed silently within her helmet, allowing herself a brief respite and closing her eyes, all the while sitting rigidly upright. Not the most comfortable perch, but it'd do. Not exactly the choicest of first expeditions, with people she didn't particularly know, no less, but once again...it'd have to do. The unanimous silence made her rather glad on her decision to keep her helmet on, lengthy hair neatly tucked up, along with the rest of her suit; sitting in complete preparation, and weighing the silence that hung above them. A cyborg male - self-designated leader? - gave them a short briefing, to which the female barely tilted her head; the details were not new - she'd made sure to explicitly read the files handed to her, teammates and all. Truth be told, she was rather bored as the machine roared to life and lifted off into the air, and she allowed her glance to flit from object to object in her surroundings. The insides of a Drake, she was rather familiar with, but as she glanced about shortly, her gaze lingered on the group of ragtag fighters thrown together in the so-called 'team'. Charming.

Galatea had been thorough in going through the files of her teammates, and she had to give credit to the fact that they actually managed to get a few surprised eyebrow-archs out of her. Curious group, and she just had the good fortune of joining them. Marvelous. It had been with disinterest that she'd read and absorbed every tiny detail she could, including histories and skills, for a better feel of who she was exchanging quarters with. Knowledge was a weapon in itself, and Jade was going in no holds barred. It seemed she was dealing with a group of skilled, but inexperienced people, much like, she grudgingly admitted, herself.

She suppressed the random urge to check her weapons - for perhaps the fifth time in the day - and self-consciously placed a hand on her right wrist - right where her missiles were placed along the elbow. She could have snapped back the arm-guard that doubled as a flap cover for the weapons, but for now she preferred a quiet AI voice telling her something she already knew; that all systems were functional. Well, of course they were! She'd personally checked her gear twice, and then once more for safety. In fact, if it hadn't been the time it was, she could've checked it once more out of impulsive perfectionism.

Her eyebrows twitched under the one-way visor, and she raised her grey chatoyant orbs to glance over her companions...again. Associating names with faces wasn't going to do her much good; focusing on the task at hand would. Admittedly, she couldn't wait to get out of the larger aerial machine - she preferred the freedom of the skies and supine flight herself, rather than travel in an airship, no matter how efficient the latter may be, but for now...she was content to remain. She sighed again - today was going to be a long day.

 

[Sky_]

Hyrain was sitting near the back, tinkering with his bot whilst Foster gave his brief. Nothing much to say that he didn't already have written down, but he still kept a half ear on what he said. After he'd finished and the ship had taken off, he took the small plasma welder out of the underside of the machine, and made a face at the sound of the engines. YY2. Bloody ancient airship. But then again, I don't see why we need a decent one. Turning down to his wristpad, his left hand danced across the keyboard as he typed a series of codes in, whilst the occasional flicks of his eyes between the bot and suit were logged by his modified combat helmet.

Hyrain then set the rover down on the ground, accessed a small program on his suit, and started it. The small thrusters he'd been installing to the bottom of the thing began to fire, a barely audible hissing sound emitting from the blue flames, and it slowly rose upwards until it was eye level. He tapped his wrist, and it started to move forwards, then suddenly dropped downwards, loosing what small altitude it had quickly, managing to slow itself, then hit the ground lightly. Hyrain picked it up, flipped it over, and pulled out the tiny plasma welder again, along with a screwdriver, specially made for fine-tuning, and went back to work on them

 

[Nebula-Newt]

Relatively happy that everybody sitting the back of the drake was ready for the mission, mostly they just seemed to be in various states of brooding, Foster made his way into the cockpit in an effort to escape the ever building tension that was growing between the soldiers. The pilot didn't day a word as the cyborg slipped in as the door closed behind him with a pneumatic hiss, instead she seemed entirely focused on the task at hand, her visor covered face pointing dead ahead. He couldn't blame her for being focused, let your mind wander too far in these skies and you could end up landing a lot sooner than you expected. Normally you'd be on fire as well. Foster had even heard that crows have begun plucking drakes right out of the skies when they unexpectedly fly too close to a nest.

"There it is, Battersea power station. Nice place for a holiday wouldn't you say?" The pilot suddenly quipped, pointing at a very derelict looking building that had certainly seen better days. Luckily it had its own compound so it was unlikely to be too crowded with animals but it could make for a prime ant nest. What a fiasco that would be.

"I think your holiday may be cut a little short captain, see the mist around the north east side of the compound? Smog. I'll tell the others, no need for anybody to choke to death today." Foster replied before turning and walking right back out the door that led to the rest of the team.

It was with mild disappointment that he registered the same cold tension in the air, clearly nobody here was any more happy to be in this particular P.E.S.T than he was. It was hard to read emotions through visors of course but after a few years working in these conditions you learn to read body language more than anything, shame really then that most of his body wasn't there to read. Time to try and coax a few signs of life out of these robots. Yes, a little rich coming from perhaps but he enjoyed the irony.

"We have smog on site, everybody make sure you keep your filters on." He instructed as he took his sniper rifle from a rack beside the rear ramp, locking it into place with the magnetic seal on his back. This particular Horizon model rifle had seen him through many a fire fight and having it with him brought a sensation of comfort, like a child with his teddy bear except the teddy bear could separate a mans head from his body.

"Drop off in 15 seconds, signal for me when you want picking up, good luck out there guys." Came the pilots voice over the intercom, signalling to the team that it was time to get in positon.

Foster was he first in line, he was already on his feet after all and now he stood at the exit ramp, his metal covered fingers tapping a beat into the pistol strapped to his leg. Some may think this a nervous tic but it was quite the opposite, Foster was excited. It was with an audible clunk that the drake landed, one that every person on board was surely familiar with and one followed by a metallic click as the ramp swung open.

Diluted sunlight shone on the team as they took their first steps into the compound, broken windows and crumbling bricks surrounding them on all sides. The sensation of being lost inside this urban jungle only intensified as the drake shot back off into the sky the moment the last solider left the ramp, momentarily parting the thick grey clouds that hung over what was once London. In the distance the call of a crow could be heard but Foster only glanced its direction for a second, clearly the beast was too far away to be of any concern. A soft blip lit up on his heads up display above a door only 15 feet to their right, a clear indicator that this was the way to go. Or at least the fastest way to their objective, it could just as well by the final signpost on their route to hell.

"Single file, Angelica take point, Quickdraw your bringing up the rear." Foster said after wrenching the rusted door open and peering into the gloomy corridor behind it. He wasn't used to calling the shots but he wasn't going to waste time waiting for somebody else to take up the mantle of leader, they had a job to do. "Lights on as well, visibility isn't great now and it doesn't look like its going to get any better."

 

[Crunchy-Cucumber]

Angelica grinned, old trained habits die hard, and so her adrenaline levels spikes suddenly, the small girl seemed to bounce ahead in front of the team. There was a solid, heavy metal thunk from behind her, and soon a light clicking against the ground signaled her companion treading faithfully behind its designated partner. The canine brushed past Angelica, infrared activated, already sniffing out the grounds ahead of her. Angelica opted out of the infrared, activating her own night vision and snatching her shot gun off her back. Making sure her round was loaded, she held the gun comfortable in front of her before swiftly disappearing into the dark hall way... mostly.

The orange light glowing along her dog's back was enough to give away the position of the front of the party. So far, the little pad in her wrist murmured trivial statistics through her COMs, and she flicked through the information across her HUD, her dog, although silent, would send her warnings through her COM link should it find anything. Yet, so far, nothing out of the ordinary had caused her systems to screech at her. Well, they weren't that far in yet, granted, but Angelica still had that trained itch in the back of her mind, that gentle urge and need to shoot something.

 

[MegaAbsol]

Jade was quietly murmuring a long-forgotten song's broken lyrics under her helmet as the cyborg - Foster? - disappeared within the cockpit, before appearing moments later. He informed them to check their filters, which she lazily did with a touch of her gloved hand to the side of her helmet. The touch sensor right next to the flight stabilizers lit up briefly; once again, known information about how her filter, like everything else, was working. She rolled her eyes; the overconfidence might yet be the death of her. The Drake soon landed, interrupting her musings, and she got to her feet. She contemplated unfolding her impressive wings to glide to the ground and ahead of the group, away....just, away.

Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be the case here. She bit back a sharp retort as Foster commanded them to fall into a file. Elementary. Considering the passageway, there really was no other formation for them to take, but Jade swallowed what little pride she'd got along and complied; though, make no mistake, it bothered her to no end that this man had taken lead. Her fiercely competitive tendencies refused to take this lying down, but...that argument for a later time. She obediently dropped into the line, opting to walk second, just behind the girl with the robotic canine. The one who had an unusual history...mh, what was her name? Angel...ica?

Her armour didn't really have too many lights on it; scout duty demanded stealth, and lights directly contradicted that concept; although it did come equipped with complete night vision and infrared. As a second thought, considering their surroundings, she switched on her electro-optical sensor as well, basically allowing her detection of every kind. She would need it if she was to survive within her fragile armour. She made a mental note to add acoustic sensors as well; echolocation where visual would fail. For now, she allowed a bullseye pointer to appear over her left eye, and left it at that, gliding along in relative silence. Her armour faded from grey to the darkest shade of black it had; for some inane reason, it came equipped with a reflective, shiny sort of black. Why? She stifled another frustrated sigh and took special care not to let the edges of her armour rub together. Those thoughts later; she'd best do what she had come here to; scout, and work.

 

[Nebula-Newt]

As the group crept along the darkened passage way, guided only by their own lights and the occasional gentle glow of an emergency light over doorways, a sudden split in their path presented itself. The left exit went down a flight of stairs, it was almost impossible to tell quite how far, while the right hand one simply offered a single doorway that was slightly ajar and gave no more than the tiniest of glimpses into what lay ahead. Foster sighed internally, he had hoped that they wouldn't be forced to split their efforts so soon but if they all went the same way it could simply be a waste of time. And as any P.E.S.T member knows, time is always of the essence.

"Looks like were going to need to split up. Quickdraw, Angelica you two take the stairs, if it doesn't lead anywhere just radio in and follow the rest of us." Foster ordered, halting at the branching paths. It felt odd being the one to give orders but he reasoned that somebody had to do it, why not him? He was just as qualified as most of the others here and had one of the least....questionable...backgrounds. He reasoned with himself that if somebody decided to challenge his leadership now he would have to stand by his decision, at least until the end of the mission. A ship with two captains is more likely to sink and all that.

As the cyborg waited for a response some over head piping shuddered momentarily as something rocketed through it and into a nearby wall. To the untrained eye it may seem as if Foster didn't even react to the disturbance but his internal systems were already on a hair trigger, waiting for the brain's command that would allow the magnetic lock on the man's handgun to release so that he could eliminate the threat. There was no need for any of that messy business however, whatever creature it had been was now long gone and the only sounds were the steady drip of rainwater from the ceiling and the howl of the wind entering the complex through broken windows.

 

[Crunchy-Cucumber]

Angelica nodded, seemingly glad that Foster had taken the reigns as leader of this... team? Well, he seemed like an easy going guy, very reasonable, and plus, his background file was certainly not as shady as most of the people gathered around her. Either way, something about him just made it easy to follow his orders, god forbid if anyone else did, she honestly would probably find ways to purposefully piss every single one of them off. She looked back, the orange LED giving away the location of her head, before nodding her head to the cowboy, and muttering an order to her dog.

The robot changed its course, bounding towards the stairs and sniffing its way down, making it a good portion of the way before stopping. Nothing out of the ordinary yet, yet Angelica kept her gun read and followed her companion down the stairs, the pathway getting darker and darker.

 

[Sky_]

Hyrain was quietly walking being them, his helmet busy attempting to pick up the minute electronic pulses emitting from active machinery, which in his line of work, was nearly always a threat. Once he had reached the others, the place was still relatively clean, but he wished he could say the same about the pipes. Must've been made in the 21st century, Hyrain commented to himself, before replying "So, I'm guessing we take the door?"

 

[MegaAbsol]

Jade was disdainfully looking around at the very out-of-date facility and shuddering at the thought of being stranded here, alone...in the darkness...When suddenly something rattled past in the pipes overhead, causing her muscles to coil in anticipation. She had been trained for quick action, so instead of wildly whirling around like a maniac, she only warily raised her head to dubiously scrutinize the offending pipes. They weren't very wide so whatever was using them was probably not, either - although small was not always necessarily good. Small creatures tended to be agile, and nimble, and could kill as easily as the largest crows. Made them difficult to target too. Galatea muttered a small swear under her breath and flexed her hand, painfully aware of the blade tucked up along her arm.

 

[Crunchy-Cucumber]

@Ry_Burst

"I don't suppose you're comfortable with close quarter combat, right?" Angelica threw over her shoulder, the mirth in her eyes and smirk across her lips was audible through her helmet, "Cuz it's we're going to be packed like sardines down here. So try not to shoot me in the back, alright?" her quip was the last of her joking demeanor, however. Her posture quickly returned to an alert stiffness as she kept track of where her mutt led them, its skeletal claws sure of their path, with nothing other than a robotic sound of whooshing air coming from the dog's nose filling the air, for now.

 

[Nebula-Newt]

"Your right techie, I would say lead the way but that just feels like the cowards option really now." Foster said with a hint of his old cockiness slipping back into his robotic tones, subtle and barely noticeable but it was there.

The cyborg's hyper sensitive "ears" twitched slightly as he stared at the door, trying to make out if there was anything obvious on the other side. When nothing came back to him but more howling of the wind and the steady dripping of water from waste pipes he took a step back before kicking the door clean off its hinges, sliding along the floor on his metal knees, pistol drawn and ready. The room was huge, easily stretching back about 200 meters, 50 of which was the hallway like area they were currently in that was filled with old chairs and computer terminals. Letting his eyes wander to the back of the room he realised it was dimly lit by a huge glass dome, one filled with something that was shifting softly, making a squishing noise. Something that was glowing. The next thing to catch Foster's eyes just so happened to be what they had been sent here to find. Several corpses and a single arm lay in a group a few feet away from them, each one a mangled mess of flesh and splintered bone.

"Hyrain check them for ID, just to make sure its our guys. Hard to tell when none of them have faces." Foster ordered, feeling a twinge of sympathy for the techie as the job he had just been given was never fun, he himself had to identify the remains of his last team. Those images would haunt his cryo dreams for ever.

Deciding to ignore the glowing elephant in the room for now Foster instead focused his attention on the only lit terminal. Surely this device wasn't running on emergency power as well? Maybe this team had been on to something after all... The screen itself was displaying a large scale diagram of some kind of device that Foster couldn't make heads or tails of. He wasn't a scientist after all. From what little information he could gather it seemed to be on about some kind of living battery, one that would be housed in a contained environment. That was when it clicked. "Jade come take a look at this for me. Does this diagram look oddly familiar to you?" he asked her, pointing at the transparent dome at the back of the room.

 

[MegaAbsol]

Jade was warily turning her head around, wishing she had a machine gun option attached within her suit, when the massive crash of the door being blown clean off its hinges made her cringe violently and, to say the least, drew her attention. Lips pursed into a thin, disapproving line, Jade allowed the fellow with the drone bot past first, opting to fall in line last. The change in position was much appreciated by the wary expert, quickly getting stifled within the narrow passageways, and she idly mused at the strength of the cyborg male. She'd probably have to ram the door down with her shoulder, splitting her armour before actually getting the door to budge. She sighed softly; such was the price of flight. She mutely followed the group into the room, staring fairly openly at the main exhibit, even going so far as to turn the visor clear, her surprised eyes taking in the sights completely.

Well, that was pleasant. Jade was rather glad about her filter as she grimly stared at the mound of dead bodies lying festering in a corner. But beyond that, was the curious dome. The avian squad member wasn't too keen on discovering the contents of the enclosure; curiosity did kill the cat, and with a quick, reassuring run through a strand that had managed to escape her helmet, she turned away from the disturbing sight. Shaking her head to clear the views of her- of their possible unfortunate charges, she turned to look at Foster, the cyborg who had called to her. Under any ordinary circumstances, she would have bristled at being summoned thus, but for once, the female was rather glad at being offered a sense of direction. All said and done, this was the first real mission the young adult had been assigned - and what a marvelous mission it was. Mindful of the silence of her armour - the edges were prone to rubbing - she peered at the object of interest; a terminal depicting some sort of blueprint. Her stormy eyes ran through the fairly complicated details, beginning to systematically sort the data - she kinda wished her armour could do that for her. No matter, her brain could rival any computer. "Is this...a self-sustaining battery? What kind of energy does it run on?" Nuclear energy would be rather dubious to use these days, but Galatea had little faith in the workings of the government. She mused over the display, and shook her head, "Familiar, though? Can't say so," The female began growing uncomfortable over her own ignorance.

 

[Sky_]

Hyrain cautiously pushed open the door, squinting through the small gap he had created before pushing it open, the rusted metal creaking and flaking as the hinges moved. Moving onwards, thermals on, he pushed through another door, stepped into a corridor, and headed onwards. Halfway, his wristpad began to glow gently. Hyrain flipped it open, looked at it, and gasped. It had picked up an ID signiture, several metres in front of him. And what do you know, it perfectly matched the one he was looking for. He turned on the helmet light, and there it was. The body, with clear strips torn out of the side. Speaking into his radio, the man said "Guys? I... I found the body. And it doesn't look good. I'm sending you my coordinates now." After he had done so, he began to look at whatever had killed him further. He looked like he had almost been ripped apart, but after Hyrain had a closer look, it became evident that they were bullet wounds. "Whatever made there must have had fucking massive rounds," he muttered to himself, taking several pictures for further study back at base

 

[Nebula-Newt]

"It look that way for sure. This is a huge find we-" Foster paused as he heard Hyrain's voice come through the comms channel. "Affirmative Hyrain, lets get the hell out of here then. Our mission is done, command is going to want to send a bigger team back here though so be prepared to be coming back here soon enough." He finished, giving the monitor one last glance before making his way back towards the exit.

He had only made it a few steps when suddenly the cyborg froze in place. The noise had been coming from the ceiling above him, a scampering, scurrying noise that he knew all too well. By the time the rats had begun bursting though the metal panels around them he had already drew his pistol, bringing it round to face the closest giant rodent before blowing it away with a loud bang and a flash of harsh light That lit up the gloomy room with the glint of far too many beady eyes. The dark shapes of hundreds of the dog sized, wiry furred, clawed rats were everywhere now, a new one appearing every second from a new angle. One even tried to break in through the floor right beneath Foster feet but got a metal foot to the face for its troubles.

"There are too many, were pulling out!" He yelled over the screeches of the filthy beasts, taking out another one as it leapt through the air towards him with a well timed squeeze of the trigger which left an oozing hole between its eyes. The entrance wasn't that far away but that side of the room was already filling up so they would have to be fast.

Foster broke into a sprint, shooting at any of the rats that got too close in an effort to clear a path for Jade to follow through behind him. She would have to be quick but he was confident she could do it, she had been chosen for this team for a reason after all. A click from his pistol snapped his focus back tot he task at hand. Shit. He was dry. And so close to the exit as well, only about 10 meters left to go. His sniper would be next to useless at this range, only one thing for it.

With a mechanical whirling noise Foster's melee weapon of choice popped out of a groove in his arm, a collapsible tomahawk that unfurled in an instant to its full length in the mans hand. The red glow of his visor found the metal door he had kicked off its hinges earlier and he picked it up as he ran, using it as a makeshift shield/ battering ram to push through the furred devils who were blocking the exit. He used the door and axe in conjunction, shoving and slicing until he reached his goal. Pulling the tomahawk from the skull of one of the rats he looked back and called out to Jade "Come on, you can make it!" as he watched her make her own way through the swarm. Hyrain, Angel and Quickdraw might be having a similar problem...

 

[Crunchy-Cucumber]

Angelica heard muffled yelling through the coms just seconds before the hound in front of her snarl at the ceiling. Unfortunately, she barely had time to react, able to shoot the rat that fell through before another came crashing into her back. Another came through the hole in front and was met with the sharp metal claws and teeth of a robotic dog. Fur and flesh flew in many tiny bits, and Angelica struggled to get a firm grip on the ground beneath her from the weight of now two rats on her back and the blood coating the floor.

"Shit." She elbowed the rat on top of her, which luckily had decided to engage in a claw fight with the other rat on top of her. Leaping to her aid, the dog came barreling into the mutant animals, knocking them away and into the board blocking the narrow hall with a crunch of bones. Opening its jaw, and lowering its front body, thin barrels emerged from its tongue and hips, and began shooting a stream of red energy rounds into the rats. Screeching and the rancid smell of burning skin filled the air, and Angelica finally found her footing, ripping off her helmet and magnetically strapping the useless thing to her hip, the rat had managed to damage it when it fell on her. Luckily, she had a backup com in her ear, and still had a small filter over her mouth. Not as reliable, sure, but it last her an hour or two. There was enough light coming from her dog for her enhanced senses to see a general shape of the front row of rats, so she began shooting into the fray, pushing foreward with her dog in an effort to quickly vacate the area.

 

[Ry_Burst]

Quickdraw gave a flick of his wrist and fired a few shots into the oncoming rats. The man, had been avoiding any forms of socialization, as he explored the plant. Then, with his luck, he was attacked by a flurry of rats. However with his speed, he began to fire shots, each hitting the Brain of an oncoming rats, holding them off, as he made a dash for the exit. Sure he was killing quite a few, and bodies of the grotesque creatures were piling up. But there seemed to be a god lot of them, and he would soon be overwhelmed.

He slid his left pistol into it's holster, and grabbed onto a broken pipe that he no over his head, and wwas th his left arm, pulled down. The rusted piece of meteal, came crashing down, squashing a few of the rats, as Quickdraw landed safely on his feet, and continued to run. He gripped his left pistol once again and fired rounds from each one as he ran. Sure the pipe had slowed the rats for a little bit, but they just leapt over it, along with the bodies of their fallen comerades and continued to run.

 

[Sky_]

Hyrain's eyes widened at the sound of scuttling in the distance, so of course he ran straight towards it, back through the doors and through the corridor, until he'd reached them, and the situation became obvious. Two of his teammates were out of ammunition, actually, make that all three.

Hyrain unclipped a concussion grenade from his belt, aimed, and lobbed the exploding pineapple, with the full knowledge that his team's helmets would prevent the sound hitting them. The rats weren't so lucky, however, and almost simultaneously collapsed, giving them some breathing space. Hyrain pulled out several ammunition clips, and clearly spoke, "Target: Foster," and grinned as it flew off, the magnets near the back of the cyborg's firearm pulling the now activated clip straight to where it needed to be. He did the same with Quickdraw, then pulled out his own gun, and started filling the rats with lead

 

[MegaAbsol]

Just as Jade was getting really absorbed in her work and beginning to piece the details together, the scurry and patter of familiar feet made her blood run cold. No, not now. Not here. This was the worst possible place to corner them. She whirled reflexively as rats, hundreds of them, burst into the room, and as though stuck in limbo, froze and watched Foster begin to hack them apart. She snapped back to reality soon enough, body moving ahead by instinct while brain lingered on indecisively. She turned back to the terminal, took a quick snap of the view with her helmet's gear, and got a massive rat on her back for her troubles. Of course, it was a bad idea to keep your back to the enemy. Gritting her teeth and swallowing an explosive, frightened curse, Jade launched her wings to open as hard as they could. The mechanism almost jammed, almost; it did, as a fact, hurl the rat across the room, away from her. She left her A.I. to survey the damage and whirled quickly, relying on the blades built into the lower joint of her wings to slice the rats as well as she could. The joints were moving in a dire attempt to keep the fragile human inside the armour safe, but at the same time Jade couldn't stake it all, and kept her wings close to her body. The resultant was a smattering of scratches across her armour, where some pest may have got their teeth or claws in, leaving a deep or light scratch accordingly. Her armour was going to be dismantled, piece by piece, at this rate.

This was bad. She was made for distant combat, or none at all, preferably. She followed close to the cyborg, albeit awkwardly - she picked up his cues that she was to follow, but at the same time inexperience in teamwork held her back. She deployed the blades along her arms and cut down rats with swift precision, dodging the occasional wild lunge by a daring rodent. A rather curious sight passed her focused eyes; a grenade or some such flew past, seemingly towards Foster, and she tensed for a moment, before moving to shake off the rat attached to her leg. The wing flew downwards and pierced past the rat's tough hide, skewering the offender, and Jade hurried to stay by the capable cyborg's side. But even then, she had the rather sickening feeling that they were fighting a losing battle.

 

[Nebula-Newt]

As Foster delayed exiting the room in an effort to keep Jade right by his side he had the strange experience of his gun loading itself. He had heard something wiz across the room towards him and next thing he knew a fresh magazine had wormed itself inside of his handgun. With no time to question it he instead brought his now fully loaded weapon around and blew a couple of the disgusting rodents away with more bursts of flame and the creatures final dying squeals. In the single moment he had bought himself the cyborg turned back to see Jade showing off just how capable she was, slicing her way towards him in a flurry of black fur and vivid red blood splatters. He was surprised to see their aerial expert doing this well in a CQC situation as desperate as this one but they both knew they were fighting a losing battle right about now. To clear out a swarm this big would probably require about 4-5 full on pyro teams absolutely armed to the teeth, not one PEST only out on a recovery mission.

It was with a sinking feeling that Foster realised the way they had originally came in was already blocked off, not just by rats but also by a raging stream of water that was pouring from a massive hole in the ceiling where previously the leaky pipes had been. The torrent was taking down everything in its path, furniture, rats and even entire sections of wall as it made its way down to the basement level where Quickdraw and Angelica were currently fighting for their lives. With his plan of escape now scuppered Foster looked around desperately for a few seconds before he spotted something of interest. A rusty old ladder that ran up the ceiling and into some kind of maintenance hatch. Turning back to his winged companion with some urgency he said "Jade, up the ladder right now unless we want to become rat food."

(I'm completely out of it after surgery still so sorry if this isn't great)

 

[MegaAbsol]

(10 days with no response? -sidles in-)

Jade let out an involuntary gasp as she felt something viciously brush against her shoulder. Almost instinctively, she flung out a bladed arm, and managed to dislodge a rat that had clambered onto her shoulder - along with a piece of her breastplate and her left flight stabilizer. The segmented armour was beginning to give way to the vicious, relentless attacks of the rat, and the current one had managed to slip past her defense; a lucky break. It had died for its efforts, but not before exposing her simply clothed left shoulder to the mass of furry bodies. She instinctively shrank away, blades madly clicking back and forth as the wings danced to her tune, slaughtering rats in a panic-driven flurry of adrenaline. As she smashed another scrabbling rodent against the wall with her forearm, she heard her comms link crackle to life. It was Foster, urging her to what sounded like their only chance at survival. In a lapse of attention, she diverted her desperate gaze upwards - and looked back down at a rat having driven its claw into her side.

She didn't feel the pain at first - the panic struck her harder than before, and with a little squeal, she lopped the rat off of her. The claw had worked its way through the abdominal section of her armour, and she could feel it having pierced through her skin, but mercifully not too deep. Gritting her teeth, she fought her way through to the base of the stairway, before pulling out the literal big guns. Her left arm flap opened and she deployed five small rockets nestled within. The short range missiles sputtered before dropping onto their unlucky victims - Jade liked to believe they shook the very structure itself, but at most, they left smears of black on the floor, where the brief burst of heat had left their mark on the floor. The rats had caught fire, but with shrieks of pain and confusion, dived into the mass of their brethren, their tough hides quickly extinguishing the flames. Jade breathed out to steady her nerves in the small moment of respite she had gained - the rats had hesitated for the crucial second she had required.

"Foster, stand clear!" She warned, as her arm swung up, the final missile released its hold on her arm and shot for the hatch a second before Galatea deployed her jets and followed. The hatch was metal, and sturdy, but hopefully the powerful concentrated detonation of the rocket could blow it clear off its hinges. Hopefully it would blow outwards, but in the circumstances it decided to fall loose and downwards, she was ready to catch it and hurl it as yet another projectile. Regardless, Jade dearly hoped that the former would happen, allowing her to shoot straight through the opening into the freedom of the azure oblivion. Taking a deep breath, Jade prepared to ram against the hatch if necessary to shake it loose, arm over her left hand, where the last of her viable firepower rattled in relative silence.

 

[Crunchy-Cucumber]

Angelica continue to shoot her way through the thin hallway, easily cutting down the one or two rags that fit in front of her. The odd one or two were taken down by her robotic companion, and the red and orange light emanating from the two of them lit the cave up brightly. It was sickening to see the red light reflect off the rats eyes, but a quick round to he head and Angelica was spared. However, some odd sound coming from behind the rats made her uneasy. Like the sound of a distant waterfall, only deepe and it echoed.

Then, she saw the black wave rushing at her, yelling out a string of curses into her COMs before the water overtook her. Her lucky bastard of a dog had dug its claws into the concrete, and Angelica managed to grab hold of it for an anchor. Rats flew down the hall with the water, unable to swim and drowning at an alarming rate. Slowly, her own dog was fighting the current, the uneven water allowed Angelica brief pockets of air, but the hallway was rapidly flooding. The current only grew stronger and more dangerous as they approached the stairs.

Her dogs haunches lowered, before leaping through the water once, it's claws latched onto the stairs. It leapt again, the stairs crumbled beneath them. Angelica fought the current desperately, running out of air, her dog beginning to crush her as they flew back again. Her legs caught the wall, and with a great shove she shot herself out of the dangerous hallway, dragging her dog out behind her. Imedietly the dog recovered and resumed shooting round after round of ammunition into the fray of rats, helping thin some of the numbers enough she could make out her teammates struggling. She grit her teach, unlatching a small, black, found object from her waist. "Grenade!" She shrieked, launching the small device with her superhuman strength, it landed right in the center of a dark mass of mutants. Then it detonated.

 

[Nebula-Newt]

Foster heard the warning from his aerial ally just in time, swinging outwards on the ladder in an effort to avoid the incoming missile. The projectile made solid contact with the sturdy hatch, erupting into a small ball of flame with another power to blow the square of metal straight open, now only attached to the ceiling by a single hinge. Recovering from the consequences of such a close range blast Foster had little time to appreciate Jade's quick thinking, his mechanically enhanced ears ringing loudly as he tried to shake off the daze he had fallen into. Sadly he didn't exactly have the time to rest up with a nice biscuit and a cup of tea, no, instead his wake up call was the sudden stomach lurching sensation of an unwanted weight latching itself to the man's leg as he struggled to maintain his grip.

"Back off!" the cyborg growled as he launched into a counter attack against the oversized vermin, using a well placed kick to force the rat's head between the rungs of the ladder before his over foot came crashing down on its neck with considerable force. The sound of bones splintering was lost to the rush of water and shrieks off the rats but its effect was not. The unfortunate creature was killed almost instantly as it's body was forced beyond its limits, the pure power of the kick actually breaking the bar the beasts head had been lodged in. The dislodged chunk of metal tumbled into the swarm below, bouncing off a rat's head in an almost comedic way. If there had been less at stake it may have even lured a chuckle out of Foster but he was already launching himself up the ladder and out into the welcoming sunlight above.

Now "safely" on the roof he backed up to allow Jade to come rocketing out of the hatch in a similar fashion to the missile she had used to destroy it in the first place. The ravenous swarm wasn't far behind however, a wave of black fur now glistening with water and the blood of their fallen comrades. Before the first rat's eyes had even adjusted to the harsh light of day it already a bullet lodged between them. Foster was already up and firing, his reloaded pistol making swift work of the front row of vermin killing machines. Moving forward with vicious intent the cyborg kept up a steady stream of hot lead as a compartment on his arm revealed itself, a grenade inside of it. Inside his visor a holographic display showed the explosives trajectory and so it was with perfect accuracy that he launched it into the open hatch, praying it would be enough to stop the endless onslaught if only for a moment. Seconds later a blast shock the roof and launched flames upwards in an impressive plume. XRT-pyrosphere grenades, a bloody miracle.

"Damn I didn't actually expect that to work." Foster remarked upon seeing no more vermin come crawling out of the blackened metal hole. Taking a moment to glance at Jade he actually let out a slightly breathless laugh out of pure relief. This feeling was short lived as his mind jumped back to his other comrades, fuck, they could still be down there. They were all capable soldiers for sure but these odds were impossible, they would have to get out by themselves or face a grisly demise. It was with gritted teeth that Foster accepted he couldn't do anything to aid them except get himself and Jade to safety and get some back up. Preferably back up armed to the teeth.

"We need an evac immediately, hostiles everywhere down here. Were on the roof of the complex, you can't miss us." Foster said over his comms, his eyes skyward in the hopes he would see their salvation flying down towards them. Sadly it wasn't their drake that caused the sudden blip on his radar but a much more unwelcome guest. The rats clearly weren't as defeated as he had dared to hope, they were stacking upon each other with extradordanirly team work whilst others came bursting from other parts of the roof like maggots through the skin of a corpse. Why oh why did some sick god of nature decide to bless these fuckers with intelligence?

"You've got to be kidding me." came Foster's response through gritted teeth as he pulled his sniper rifle from his back, levelling it at the enemy. If they were going down he was taking as many of these furred demons down with him as possible. Their first mission together as well, guess things just weren't meant to work out. This fucked up world had a habit of ignoring even the best made plans, there are no chosen ones out here. Only lost souls who belive they are the protagonists of their own little stories. Foster knew better than most that not all stories had a happy ending. Some ended in a bloody slaughtering at the clawed hands of killer rats.

"Fly if you have to Jade, I'll take as many of them as I can." The cyborg said calmly as he closed the gap between him and his comrade, stopping when he was right by her side to fire a glowing red projectile that cut through the first few rats like knife through butter. It certainly wasn't enough to stop the black tsunami, as useless as shooting a water pistol at this point. A cold sense of tranquillity had come over the man as he fired round after round from his weapon, one that most people wouldn't associate with their demise swiftly approaching but hey, he had died before right?

 

[MegaAbsol]

Jade automatically unrolled her visor as she flew straight out, straight as an arrow, like a streak of- oh, she didn't care for metaphors. She was out. Taking in a deep breath of the toxic air - a breath had never been more precious to her - she reveled for a moment in the hold of zero gravity, before the laws of physics regained their hold on her, and she fell. Even before she had landed, she watched an explosive plume of fire surge upwards, and she gracefully dodged, too happy to be annoyed at the close call. Of course, the happiness quickly faded when she landed in a less than desirable area. If she'd thought she was safe, she was wrong. Besides her slightly wobbly flight due to her missing stabilizer (she had been compensating by leaning her weight on the other side) an unending horde of rats rose like the dead, clamouring to take them down with them, back to whatever hell they crawled up from. A strange calm swept over Galatea.

She could leave. It was as simple as that. Of course, not 'leave' as in abandon and fly away, leave as in...yeah, abandon and fly away back to HQ or the drake, and get backup. After all, none of this was her fault, was it? And yet...she found herself hesitating. She knew the consequences of her actions, should she choose to act thus. She'd come back to another pile of corpses, another team to be ID'd and remembered. She watched, with some trepidation, the metal cyborg hack his way into a small, relatively safe area, where he proceeded to hold his own. For now. There was little hope of holding on for much longer. If only the drake could show up...

Jade was aware of what firepower the avian warship carried - hopefully enough to hold the rat masses at bay, but until it showed up, they were on their own. Without a second thought, she unclasped her right arm-guard, revealing her second and last batch of small missiles, firing them to clear a small circle around Foster, before dropping to land with a heavy thud next to the mentioned teammate. "Hey, Foster," A certain assurance came with the knowledge that she could escape with her life at any time, unlike her less fortunate teammates. But hell if she was leaving them there to their grisly fates. She refused to stand by, unable to do anything, except wait...for those who won't return. She swallowed a lump beginning to build up in her throat, her A.I quietly readying one of the napalm missiles. She could feel the offending bomb slowly heating up against her shoulder. "So, how much do you weigh?"