Hariim finished prepping his kit and the squad's tactical net right when Itasha called him. She sees the appropriate indicators flash in her HUD, showing her that her suit's EWAR and sensor systems have been patched in and are fully operational. "Already did, if you switch your HUD view to 'Squaddie' you'll see that I've connected up all of the team's sensors and networked them to work together. You should have full false-color imaging on all hostiles, as well as full real-time threat tracking which will indicate viable cover against whatever weapons we're facing in the field. I've also managed to slap together something that resembles a mesh network, so all capable suits can share processing power. Your EWAR suite oughta get a boost out of that." Hariim replied helpfully. He displayed the relevant data and tutorial tooltips to guide Itasha through the new symbols, icons, and data feeds linking into her HUD. He did a similar routine for everybody else as well.
The away team crossed through a door in a chain link fence, across a small dirt lot where, incredibly, they found some plants growing up against the edge of the school. Out on the sidewalk, they watched as large diesel trucks rolled by spewing dark smoke. There were three possible paths forward.
The first path was the main road to the east. There were a fair number of pedestrians here, many of whom were prepping for the war by stocking up on goods from the city's storefronts. The buildings there were mostly brick and mortar, with lots of windows caked over with brown film. Obviously, as Istasha quickly pointed out, there were innumerable vantage points from which the team could be spotted and shot at. The greatest threat was a checkpoint at the end of the road, operated by UGC peacekeepers. However, it was also the quickest and shortest way to the processing plant.
The second path, as located via street map analysis, was a winding series of alleyways which snaked around the interior of the block. There was a large courtyard at the interior of the shopping district with no clear use on the maps, and beyond it, there was an electrical substation which overlooked a sunken roadway. The substation was likely to be guarded as well, but perhaps it would be possible to sneak around the patrol.
Finally, through a more in-depth analysis of the city's construction, Istasha and Hariim were able to locate a route through the sewer which would allow them to exit inside the lot of the processing plant. There was no telling whether the route was serviceable, as all available information was out of date. They would simply need to see for themselves whether the tunnels connected the way they did on their HUDs. The best upside to this path was that there was likely no one bothering to patrol it, not even security cameras.
The choice of route was in the hands of Maddox, but this was an opportunity for the away team to discuss and plan with their leader.
*snip*
Markus surprisingly interjected, making his own suggestion to the progression.
"If ya ask me, we should go through the sewers. Don' know 'bout you lot, but I prefer gettin' a little dirity than shot at."
"I like the idea of a distraction, the problem is that it could go wrong in so many ways."
He nodded towards Koval. "The sewers it is."
*snip*
Maddox nods towards Istasha and Hariim. "Do it."
He then motions for the rest of the squad to move. "Let's go, team."
*snip*
Hariim essentially devours the data and makes his own inquiries into the civilian net. He feels out what security there is in the power grid, and familiarizes himself with the circuitry controlling the hardware he's about to set off. Thanks to the particulars of his artificial grey matter, he does this all within the span of a few nanoseconds, and is ready to go. He nods to Itasha, and then goes to work. He works with careful expedience to subvert or bypass whatever meager civilian security measures are in place, and does what needs doing to create the distraction his team needs. [Collaborating with Itasha for dem gains!]
*snip*
Noticing Itasha's activity on the camera networks, Hariim devotes several run times and a series of specialized demons he has on hand for just the sort of tasks Itasha is performing. The end result is that Hariim and his little helper programs collaborate with Itasha and do much of the grunt work for her; allowing her to focus on the meat of her task.
As the away team reached the end of the corridor that led down into the sewers they encountered a door that would access the sewer tunnels.
Markus tried the door to see it was locked with a worn padlock. He turned back to the rest of the team, "Time to take out the skeleton key" he said with a slight laugh.
He slung the rifle from his back and broke the lock with the butt of the rifle and opened the door.
Looking inside he could only see darkness, as the personnel maintaining the tunnels surely had their own light with them. He looked back to the crew, "I can't see me bloody hand infront of me face. Ya tech wizies can do anythin' 'bout that?" he said, looking at Istasha and Hariim.
...
Yuga sits in one of the booths at the bar, calmly sipping her tea whilst reading intergalactica.
"Do you have faith in your new leadership?" she asked Alex, not looking away from the holoscreen.
Alex was behind the bar. If Ahaz wasn't gonna clean the glasses, he would have to. Where was he anyway?
[QUOTE]Do you have faith in your new leadership?[/QUOTE]
"I trust Taylor to keep morale up through the rest of this mission and to keep the rest in line. After that, simple wait and see."
The drums were beating louder. The screams were getting higher. Frosty couldn't leave. He looked around for an exit, but there was none. The inside of the temple he was in was ornate with geometric patterns lining the domed ceilings, chiseled spirals running down the support pillars, and carpets laid out on every inch of the wooden floor. On an altar at the end of the wall furthest of the entrance was a man in a white tunic and a white mask with a headband wrapped around it. There also appeared to be something written on the man's headband, but Frosty couldn't see it clearly. The man was giving a sermon about how to properly perform a sacrifice, and terrorize the enemy with the remains.
... And then a captive was brought to the altar.
The captive was then restrained to the altar top with the sermon giver standing over him with his foot on his chest. The sermon giver did whatever he told the crowd on what to do. Frosty couldn't look. He tried to block out what came next, but he could still hear everything the speaker said with frightening avidity. Things such as "Once muscle and ligament have been sliced away, the head can be cleanly removed," and "Remove the tongue and eyes, skin the head, and place it outside in a wire cage," with the occasional interruption by sounds of cutting, popping, and something breaking. Frosty wanted to run, he opened his eyes again to see if he could find any way to get away from the madness going on in the room, only to find himself being shoved towards the base of the altar with the sermon giver looking down at him. "Come and see, our friend! Come and see the divine retribution we will set upon the non-believers!" the crowd beckoned to him.
"Do you see this, my child?" The sermon giver stretched out his arm, holding out the flayed skin of the captive, with it's lifeless body bleeding on the altar. Frosty jumped back in fear, but the sermon giver caught him and tied the skin around him like a cape. "The flayed skin will serve as our flag! It will serve as a symbol of our purpose! The complete and utter destruction of mankind!" The body was kicked into the crowd, where they began to tear it apart into pieces, limb from limb. Two members of the congregation were fighting for control of an arm which ended up with it being torn in two, while another was clamping down it's jaws hard on a foreleg. Others were smearing blood on themselves as the rest of the crowd was drawn into a raging frenzy. Frosty couldn't do anything but scream from what he had just witnessed. Then the crowed turned to him, and so did the sermon giver.
"But what is the matter, Mr. Frosty? Don't you remember this? Don't you remember your legacy to your people?" The crowd grabbed Frosty and began to beat him savagely. He was bleeding profusely, he was wounded all over, and he kicked and screamed but it was no use. The crowd dragged him to the altar to become another sacrifice. Chemosh, the sermon giver, turned to Frosty to speak. "Do not worry, Mr. Frosty. You will learn to appreciate this soon. That is, if you live to understand it." The final blow came from Chemosh as a knife plunged right into his neck, causing Frosty to wake up screaming.
"[I]Mr. Frosty, what happened?[/I]" said a very surprised Moloch. Frosty tried to shake off what just happened, whatever horrible dream he just had. He was sitting in the passenger's seat of a jeep next to Moloch. The two of them were taking a tour of Karbala's surface and they appeared to be heading towards a massive mosque in the distance.
"I think I just had a vision..." said Frosty.
"[I]Of what?[/I]" asked Moloch.
"...Nothing pleasant. I'd rather not speak of it again. Where are we headed, might I ask?"
"[I]To our mosque. You are to have introductions with several quite important people who are very much eager to see you.[/I]"
This made Frosty uneasy for the rest of the trip.
[QUOTE][B][I]Meanwhile, deep in the mines of Pyri II...[/I][/B][/QUOTE]
[QUOTE][video=youtube;zNNvvdHfGf0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNNvvdHfGf0[/video][video=youtube;yEqV73esZcw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEqV73esZcw[/video][/QUOTE]
"Barry, tell the guys down in tunnel 43 to slow the fuck down. The wolfram isn't going anywhere, so there's no need to rush shit and get people killed." said a grizzled woman, her voice rough but serious as she stood looking at a wall of holomonitors. Her long, dark steel-colored hair dangled down near her shoulders, covering a leather jacket and dark navy jean pants. On the back of the jacket, a large emblem of Pyri II's mining corps with the large initials SDF stamped beneath it. "Yes, ma'am." said the man nearby, before tapping on a small device next to him on the observation desk. "Group 43, Miranda said slow down on the drilling. You're moving too fast, and might cause a cave-in. Copy?" he spoke into the small device, before a tired sounding voice replied back. [I]"Solid copy. Got any spare water tanks? Could really use them down here. Heat is pretty damn intense." [/I]
Barry glanced back over at Miranda, who returned the glance. She nodded, after a short pause. "Group 43, sending two water tanks down to you. Have your empty ones ready to be sent back, over." stated Barry into the device. [I]"Copy that. They'll be ready."[/I] was the reply. Barry then tapped the device again, and sat back in his chair. "We really need to get Sol to send us some more water tanks. We run through them so quick that we have to send the off-duty miners to get them refilled." "I know. I'll bring it up with the liaison later. Along with a few other things...like that damn atmosphere pump breaking down on us [I][B]three times[/B][/I] within the past week." Miranda turned to face him, her arms folded. The one eye she had left cutting from the monitors to Barry's face. "How are we supposed to work without oxygen? We don't have enough suits for the whole fucking mining force." she continued.
Barry shrugged, then slipped his hands behind his head. "At least we're better off than Pyrus-3. They've got a shortage on mining equipment. Some of the mining equipment fell into a magma pool." Miranda's eyebrows raised a bit. A fucking magma pool? How? Barry shrugged again. "No idea how. Guess the ground gave way over one. I bet it was one of those dumbasses with a vibro-rod." "Yeah, probably. Kena's got his hands full over there." said Miranda. She adjusted her eyepatch, which covered her right eye, and stepped over to the glass behind them. The window overlooked the main hangar, where all the mining equipment was usually stored unless in use. Some miners were loading water tanks onto the back of a hovertruck down below. Hope they strap them down tight.
She glanced back at Barry. "You know, I'm kind of glad Maddie didn't go into this kind of work." she said, her voice a bit softer. "You mean Taylor? Yeah, I guess. Military and Mercenary work isn't much better, you know. She gets shot at for a living." replied Barry, turning a bit in his chair to look at her. Miranda turned around. "...Yeah, you have a point." she muttered. She thought for a moment, wondering where Taylor could be right now. Probably got some lavish job protecting some fat cat from Terra somewhere in the galaxy. She smirked. She had to be, from how much money Taylor had been sticking into that account for her. "...I should check on her later." she muttered, glancing back out the window.
[B]....[/B]
[QUOTE][B][I]Back on Voyak...[/I][/B][/QUOTE]
"Mad, keep me updated on progress. Check in every thirty minutes." said Taylor, as she sat on the bridge. She was fine being in charge of things. What she wasn't fine with was not being actually in the field. But she needed to let someone else lead this one. She sighed, and looked back down at her holotablet, before switching comms from the away team to the Muramasa's intercom. "Alex, when you have the time, I need to speak to you in private about something." she stated.
Maddox turned on his helmet light. "I'll take point." He said to Koval.
As he stepped into the murky waters of the sewer he replied to Taylor. "Copy that captain, I'll keep you posted."
*snip*
"Good copy, Istasha."
-----
Vakarus sits down inside at the bar.
"Greetings Alex'vakrin and Yuga'ayrin."
"Good morning to you too, Vakarus. Something on your mind?"
Yuga released a cloud of vapors from her compass, her booth filled with a lingering mist.
She looked at Alex with, squinting her eyes in a friendly matter, "Let us hope you are right, for your sake."
As Vakarus entered Yuga simply nodded to acknowledge his presence. She took a sip from the cup and returned to her news.
"Planning to leave us once the oportunity arises?" He asked while grabbing another glass to clean.
Vakarus nodded. "Many thoughts cloud my mind, Alex'vakrin."
He looked at Yuga. "Yuga'ayrin, I wish to ask a favor from you."
Yuga finished an article when she replied to Alex, "Your assumption is correct, Mr Korunov. It seems my leadership is no longer desired on this vessel and hence I see no reason to remain. I will put my talents to use where they are needed and receive the deserved respect."
She put her empty cup onto the saucer and put the on the table and slowly clasped her hands together, leaning on the table as her focus shifted from her holoscreen to Vakarus, "I suppose I cab repay your servitude and loyalty with a favor. What is it you require, Va'un?"
"What I ask is no small thing; I wish to, should the pardon not be accepted, stay with you and your kin."
He gestured towards Alex and the ship. "The years I have spent on this vessel and with its crew, House Terika, have granted me both wisdom and knowledge on how to heal the wounds I caused to not my own people, but to the Gadr as well."
"However, my sight is not clouded with illusions. I am aware that the pardon could be declined by your elders. If that happens I wish to stay with your people, not only to gain more knowledge and insight but to prove that I am worthy of returning to my people."
"So, you're leaving too, eh Vak?"
Vakarus shook his head. "Not yet, Kitchen Overlord. I am merely planning for the path ahead."
"I see. Well, I have to go see what the captain wants." Alex put the last glass away before leaving the bar. At the doorway, he turned around. "Oh and Vak. If you ever want to talk, you know where to find me."
Yuga got up from the booth, putting on her hat and taking her compass from the table.
She fixed her coat and corrected her hat before looking up at Vakarus, "If this is your wish I have no doubts it can be arranged. Should your pardon go decline I will arrange a contract with my father in which you will serve our house as my adviser."
She began walking out of the mess hall and stopped next to Vakarus, communing with him privately, "I urge you to consider this. Your talents are better put to use in the service of his majesty's empire. And if you ever wish to see your world again I suspect participating in this company's activities will doubtfully increase your chances to do so."
Yuga bowed slightly and departed to the bridge to look over the operations progression as well as study flight paths for possible upcoming scenarios.
Vakarus nodded towards Alex as he left. "Gods be with you, Alex'vakrin."
"I will weigh your words, Yuga'ayrin." Said Vakarus before bowing his head, a sign of mutal respect.
With no one left at the bar, Vakarus got up and returned to his quarters where he began practicing traditional Vakr martial arts. Using both his fists and staff, Vakarus channeled small amounts of psionic energy with each blow to make it even more powerful.
On a Vakr or any other opponent of the same strength and size, for example a Gohva, one such blow would not cause any major damage on its own and would need to be complemented with additonal blows from both hands and the staff.
Weaker and smaller targets however would run a high risk of taking serious injury, a psionically charged blow could easily break and shatter bones if directed correctly.
Among Vakr hunters it is common practice to deliver similar blows as a sort of "mercy strike" when delaing with wounded prey.
The prey would first be blessed by the hunter before having its life ended swiftly.
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