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Thump. Thump thump. Thump. Thump thump. That noise has been the group's constant companion since they escaped the room where the failed experiment happened. It is the sound of angry creatures, trying to get out. It has been quite some time now and they haven't stopped, not once, slamming on the door. The emergency lighting illuminates the deck with a blood-red hue; sparks fly from exposed wires in one corner, doubtless shorted out by the result of the experiment.
Mack sits with his back against the ruined hoverloader that's been crashed against the inner airlock. He's working out some kind of equation in grease pencil on the deck in front of him. The sound of heavy footsteps announces that Kronk is arriving from the corridor. Of the four others there to watch the experiment, the human man is decidedly coolheaded; the others are in a state of shock.
"Aha!" Anshera intones, more amused than accusatory, "You are listening to her speak to Zariel. How quaint." She squirms around to look at the throat puffy Grimhaldi, "You are too small to be Kronk."
Griss deflates. "Not sssure what you mean." He says slowly, and flicks his tongue. "Who do you mean, 'her'?" He glances around the corridor, focusing on Mack for a moment. "And which one isss Zariel?"
Naoi shifts uncomfortably from her back to her shoulder, to her back again. Then, unwillingly, her eye flutters open as she sighs. The constant ringing makes prolonged sleep difficult.
MacNamara shakes his his head. "I don't know," he says. "I think one of the people on our security detail went by that name." Mack pulls himself to his feet with a grunt, brushes himself off. He looks to Kronk, a battle-scarred Zangali in kilt and plasma rifle. "What did you find?"
Kronk grunts. "Stupid beasties putting dent in door. Stupid beasties get out soon. Security chief say sending team like boss ask, use stupid half-broken ship catchy thingy."
"One does not believe you. And she is her." To emphasise, Anshera points to herself while she explains that she's referring to herself - not that it's much clearer, "Zariel is the big red Hekayti. He is like she is, returned from death." For a moment Anshera studies Mack, then scoots out of Griss' lap and over to the cyborg and into /his/ lap if he lets her, "One may speak to the creatures telepathically, you know. She would like to keep one for hers..." For a moment the girl trails off, "Ah! Zariel says that those he called to aid have arrived."
Griss looks at Anshera curiously for a moment. "Lasssarusss, yesss?" He hisses under his breath, and then flicks his tongue amd gives a shake of his head. Looking at Kronk and then over to the door with the creatures behind it, he slips his closed knife into his palm.
Naoi listens irritably to the continued pound of flesh against steel, sword near at hand but not yet armed. She seems to be counting under her breath the time between each thunderous blow.
"Huh? Oh, hello," Mack says, chuckling as Anshera climbs on top of him. He looks over at Naoi. "Does your friend always do this?" To those assembled, he adds: "They're between us and a backup landing bay that we were building, but there's an auxiliary engineering station before that. We could at least see what's going on." He exhales slowly. "there's cameras."
Anshera settles herself in a comfortable sitting position on Mack's shoulders, legs straddling his neck and her arms wrapping loosely around his head, across his forehead. To Griss she offers, "One does not know what this Lazarus is." That'd be a no for the Grimhaldi.
Griss shakes his head at Anshera, and hops lightly to his feet. His tail sways behind him for balance. His attention is on Mack, seemingly waiting to see what the big cyborg is going to do.
"Yes." Naoi informs MacNamara. "In fact, suffice to say, she does it all the time rather permission is given or not." She sits up, rubbing at her eye. "We do not have much time, do we?"
Kronk and Mack are standing; Anshera is on his head. The four VIPs are largely in a state of shock, except for the human guy, he seems to be taking this pretty well. Meanwhile, the beasties keep on trying to break open the door that Lucius slammed in their faces. Thump. Thump thump.
Thump. Thump thump. It's starting to bow outwards, that door.
A toothy grin is offered to Naoi, but the child's attention remains largely on Mack as one small hand pats at his cheek to try and get his attention, "Did you hear One earlier? She can speak to the creatures and she would like to keep one as a pet." Nope, that's not an insane idea /at all/.
"Up to you, Mac. I don't make policy, but remember this job was a courtesy call, not a paid assignment." Lucius says, removing his magazine from his weapon and replacing it with a fresh one. He also keys his underslung plasma launcher "shotgun" on, with a distinct hum as it's activated. He slides the rifle back so he's gripping it from the launcher. "Your call." The man stands a few metres away from the door.
"Well, if you'd be so courteous as to get us to that engineering bay, I expect we'd be able to find out if it was safe to make it to the landing bay airlock and get picked up," Mack says. "A security team is on it's way and will clean a way to us. It's just too much of a risk to open this door and let us in that way." He jerks a thumb behind himself at the airlock.
"You will abandon your project then?" Naoi asks stiffly, "All the work you have done? What of your ambitions and dreams, do they die as well? That would make Virg's death meaningless, would it not?"
Oh ho, the little child that is Anshera is perhaps getting a little irate at being ignored, green eyes narrowing slightly, "Mack." She states in a firmly and almost coldly, "One /wants/ to /keep/ one of the creatures as a /pet/." Her tone indicates pretty clearly that she's not all that willing to take no for an answer. Spoilt brat.
"That's not happening," Mack says to Anshera and Naoi. "Neither of those things are happening. That's twice now that what I've done brought something back to this universe that shouldn't be here," he says. "The risks of this kinds of experiment are too great. This is a perfectly good universe," he says. "Now let's just get out of here alive, OK?" He gestures to Lucius. "Will you lead the way?"
Naoi's narrow glare at the door says plenty of what she thinks of that, sweeping up her sword as she does so.
Griss remains quiet, with his hands stuffed in his pockets. He follows Macnamara's gesture to Lucky, and watches the Martian for a few moments. The Grimlahdi's tail thrashes impatiently.
"Here's a better idea - live. Instead of worrying about the fact that the scientific research is gone, or your idiot fucking child wants one of these things as a pet... we can live. Which is what we're going to do. Because if you resist someone will club you over the head and carry you." Lucius shrugs inconspicuously. "Not me or nothing, of course. Where am I going again?" Asks the Martian.
It can be counted as a good thing that Anshera isn't very strong as her arms tighten around Mack's noggin, of course he's got the advantage of being made of metal(in large part anyway) regardless. The murderous look in 'Shera's eyes intesifies, and it's to Lucius she looks, "Live? /You/ would like to continue living, yes?" There's pretty much no mistaking the underlying threat there. The threat that 'Shera might just be inclined to kill Lucky herself. Temper temper!
"Do not be an ass, for the simple purpose of being an ass, particularly when you look more the fool for asking a question that was answered but moments ago." Naoi says in response to Lucius poorly-veiled threat. "I am allowed my disappointment, and had made no grand claims of taking on the hoard by my lonesome. Suffice to say, I do not need saving from myself. Lead the way and I will follow."
"Aaaahhh! Help!" One of the VIPs, a Llivori, has some kind of creature gnawing on his shoulder and neck. The creature is small, about the size of Anshera, with batlike ears and patches of short fur. It's hard to tell what color the fur is on account of the blinking red lights. The other VIPs scramble clear.
Naoi is suddenly breaking out into motion at the scream, pushing through the small gap of scattering VIPs to the one being assaulted. If she can get close enough, she'll use bare hands in an attempt to pull the creature off the unfortunate would-be meal.
Griss whips his head around with a hiss of alarm, spines standing up from the back of his neck. Unlike Naoi, he doesn't rush to the Llivori's rescue. Instead, he looks towards the blast door, seeing if it's been breached while they were talking. Then the Grimlahdi casts his gaze around the walls and ceiling, looking for anywhere the creature could have gotten in.
Ah yes. What do you get when you spoil a little sociopathic child? You get temper flares that pay no mind to the current situation in the face of her own desires. And right now Anshera desires to tear out Lucius' throat. As such, she stands on Mack's shoulders, then launches herself off him and at the Martian! Raaaaarr!
Lucius doesn't even bother looking at Anshera as he dismisses her verbally.
"Shut up you stupid spoiled twat." He nods at Naoi. "Just wanted to make sure we were all on the same page, ma'am." He's regained some sort of politeness... at least with the grown ups. The scream gets his attention, though he lifts his weapon up with no particularly stunning speed. As Naoi approaches in front, it goes down. He sidesteps so as to be out of the way of the commotion and maybe assertain where this creature came from, dropping to a crouch.
He has absolutely no idea that Anshera is coming at him. And hopefully he found what he was looking forward before Anshera smacks into him, knocking the kneeling Martian over.
Naoi succeeds in peeling the critter from the Llivori's neck, although it takes a couple chunks of the Llivori's fur with it as it goes. The critter squeals in rage, a high-pitched chittering sound, and starts thrashing around. It grasps at Naoi's hand with all four of its clawed limbs and opens its jaw wide -- unhinging it, in fact. Then it snaps forward, attempting to swallow Naoi's hand whole.
Griss and Lucius both notice that there is no grate over one of the air vents where there really should be one. Oh, and there's also another critter in that vent. Oh, and it's leaping towards Naoi. Oh, and there's another one behind it which also takes flight, while several more seem to be waiting in the wings.
"My God," Mack says. Yeah, he's still here, somewhere near Lucius and Anshera. He takes a step back, towards the main corridor. "Lucius, we've got to get out of here." He looks to Lucius and Anshera. "Hey!" He shouts. "Get off of him! We've got to go! Now!"
Naoi is able to avoid the bite, catching movement coming from her right flank, and then goes to grip the back of the unhinged jaw montrosity by the back of its neck.
Turn.
Go feast ye upon your brethren, beast, for you shall not feast upon me.
Throw?
Griss touches the stud on the handle of his knife and flicks the blade out, but doesn't look eager to engage the monsters in hand to hand. He takes a step back, positioning himself behind Lucius, only to find the marine being assaulted by an altogether different kind of beast. The Grimlahdi lends a hand, in a similar mannder to Naoi, by grabbing Anshera at the base of the neck and attempting to toss her towards the creature in flight. "Go get it." He hisses.
Anshera isn't at all inclined to get off Lucius just because Mack told her to. In fact, she's just about to try biting into any vulnerable bit of Martian flesh she can get at when Griss takes her by the back of the neck and /tosses/ her at the creature in flight. Well... It's something to kill at least, so for the moment she goes with the flow and latches onto both of the fling critters, a handful of fur from each held tightly in each of her little hands. The one gripped by her right hand? Well, she makes to latch her jaws around it's throat and dig sharp little teeth in. NOM.
Lucius is as distinctly shocked by the Grimlahdi pulling the little girl off of him as he had been when the little girl jumped on him in the first place. He quickly regains himself though, standing right up and leveling his weapon at the vent. The way he holds it, he entends to fire off a burst from his Purification underslung plasmacannon. And he does. As soon as his finger's pulled the trigger, a fat stream of white hot plasma darts through the air. Nevermind anything in the way, or if the vent was essential...
FOOM! Shriek! Lucius' plascannon sends a glowing streak of superheated gas backwards into the vent, and reduces the vents' edges to molten slag. The still-burning pieces of the critters that had been waiting to jump on Naoi, too, instead fall to the deck in smoldering piles. They dig divots into the deck as they cool.
Thud. Anshera wings both critters, deflecting them from their course, but she fails to latch hold of either of them. She falls to the ground not far from Naoi; the critters land on either side of her, a few feet away. They gather themselves and, sensing, apparently, that they're outmatched, turn to run out the door and head down the corridor.
"Let'sss go." Griss hisses loudly, gesturing back down the corridor. "More will be coming." He turns to head towards the exit, swinging his tail around as he does so and lashing it out to strike one of the two fleeing critters.
Anshera hisses and growls as she struggles against Naoi's grip on her kimono, the little fey obviously still possessed of a flared temper.
"Time to get out of here, methinks." Says Lucius, echoing Griss and picking himself up from the ground. He turns around to move ahead, as Mac told him to, weapon up still. His movement is quick, body squared and torso slightly leaning forward as he moves. "One of you take up rear. I got a pistol if anybody knows how to use it."